LIBRARY 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 SANTA BARBARA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 CARROLL PURSELL 
 
 1Z 
 
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 '-
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY
 
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 LIFE AND POEMS 
 
 ^ J ^ -*^- 
 
 OF 
 
 Clarissa Tucker Tracy 
 
 BY 
 
 ADA CLARK MERRELL, M. A. 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY 
 
 1908 
 
 4-
 
 Copyright, 1908 
 
 BY 
 
 ADA CLARK MERRELL, M. A.
 
 .
 
 MRS. EUGENIE MANVILLE McKNIGHT
 
 THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED 
 TO 
 
 MRS. EUGENIE MANVILLE McKNIGHT 
 
 IN LOVING MEMORY OF HER FIDELITY AS A STUDENT, AND 
 
 IN RECOGNITION OF THE BEAUTY OF HER LIFE, 
 
 AND OF HER FOND MINISTRIES TO KINDRED, FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS; 
 
 A WOMAN OF RARE PURITY, SYMMETRY 
 
 AND STRENGTH OF CHARACTER, 
 
 WHO KNEW SO WELL THE SECRET OF DOING GRACIOUSLY 
 
 AND SWEETLY THE MANIFOLD " LITTLE KINDNESSES 
 
 WHICH MOST LEAVE UNDONE OR DESPISE." 
 
 

 
 TO MRS. C. T. TRACY 
 
 1818-1898 
 
 To honor goodness is to honor thee; 
 
 To honor virtue is to bow the knee 
 
 To the sweet graces of thy inner heart, 
 
 And seek to share in them some humble part. 
 
 We love thee for thy kind and gracious mien, 
 For truth which sets its seal upon thy brow serene; 
 For kindly deeds thy willing hands have wrought, 
 For words of wisdom full of Christly thought; 
 For all thy smiles, yea, all thy blessed tears, 
 For both reveal a heart unchanged by years. 
 
 Blest gift of years, be they fourscore or more, 
 If filled with blessings from God's boundless store; 
 Thy life, my friend, has earned this tribute sweet, 
 By ministries of love, so constant, wise, and meet. 
 
 Could I but crown thee at this natal time, 
 My coronet would not with earthly jewels shine; 
 But heavenly pearls of mercy, truth, and love 
 Would glisten on thy brow like stars above. 
 
 May He who notes the tiny sparrow's fall, 
 And ne'er forgets a service great or small, 
 Fill thy last years with peace and golden light, 
 Foretaste of the eternal years' delight. 
 
 Mary Spencer Thayer. 
 Clifton Springs, N. Y. 
 November 12. 1898.
 
 CONTENTS 
 PART I 
 
 THE LIFE OF CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. In Days o' Lang Syne 19 
 
 Poem Voices from the Past. 
 
 II. Young Womanhood, 26 
 
 Poem In Fancy's World. 
 
 III. Joy and Sorrow, 32 
 
 An Interesting Incident. 
 
 Poems A Husband's Prayer in Absence. 
 
 The Sufferer. 
 
 The Death-bed Scene. 
 
 IV. A Momentous Decision 44 
 
 Poem My Ebenezer. 
 
 A Child of Prayer. 
 
 Poem and Letter to her Son Horace on his Tenth 
 
 Birthday. 
 Mrs. Tracy in Neenah. 
 
 V. Mrs. Tracy in College Pioneering 54 
 
 Appreciations by Dr. William Hayes Ward and Dr. 
 Lyman B. Sperry. 
 
 VI. Mrs. Tracy as I Knew Her 61 
 
 Reminiscences of Some of Her Students. 
 Poem My Dear Old Boys and Girls. 
 
 VII. In her Declining Years 77 
 
 An Epitaph. 
 
 VIII. In her Official Relation to Ripon College 85 
 
 Obituary, Funeral Services, Resolutions, and Testi- 
 monials. 
 
 9
 
 10 CONTENTS 
 
 PART II 
 
 POEMS AND PROSE ARTICLES BY CLARISSA TUCKER 
 
 TRACY 
 POEMS 
 
 1. How Much Owest Thou my Lord? 101 
 
 2. I Ask my Secret Soul 103 
 
 3. Musings 104 
 
 4. Day by Day 104 
 
 5. The Grace of God 105 
 
 6. It is the Lord 106 
 
 7. Doubt and Faith 107 
 
 8. Lenten Musings 108 
 
 9. The Heavenly Guest 110 
 
 10. Somewhere Ill 
 
 11. Rejoice, Rejoice 112 
 
 12. Children of Light 113 
 
 13. In Memoriam 114 
 
 14. To Mr. and Mrs. H. H. Dixon 115 
 
 15. To Rev. L. J. White 116 
 
 16. To Science and Educational Clubs 117 
 
 PROSE COMPOSITIONS 
 
 1. The Sisterhood of Widows 119 
 
 2. The Ministry of Sorrow 120 
 
 3. It is Curious Who Give 124 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 1. Sketch of Mrs. Eugenie Manville McKnight 131 
 
 2. Genealogy of the Harris Family 132 
 
 3. Harris Family Song 134 
 
 4. Stephen Tucker 135 
 
 5. The Tracy Ancestry 136
 
 CONTENTS 11 
 
 6. Dr. James Horace Tracy 137 
 
 7. Anniversaries 138 
 
 8. Poems to Mrs. Tracy 141 
 
 9. Edward Rowland Sill 142 
 
 10. Incident of the Flag 143 
 
 1 1 . Joe Smith 144 
 
 12. Bible Class in Neenah " 146 
 
 13. Anecdotes of Mrs. Tracy 146
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Mrs. C. T. Tracy Frontispiece 
 
 Mrs. Eugenie Manville McKnight 5 
 
 The Old Home in Jackson, Pa 22 
 
 Mr. Stephen Tucker 28 
 
 Horace Hyde Tracy 32 
 
 Clarissa Aurelia Tracy 36 
 
 Mrs. Lucy Harris Tucker 46 
 
 James Horace Tracy 50 
 
 Clarissa Tucker Tracy 54 
 
 Middle College in the Sixties 58 
 
 Middle College in the Eighties 70 
 
 Brockway College 86 
 
 13
 
 PREFACE 
 
 Three or four years before Mrs. Tracy died, one day 
 when we were having one of our good old-time visits at her 
 home, she said to me suddenly in her quick, crisp way: 
 "Mrs. Merrell, I want you to write my biography. I know 
 my old boys and girls will want to have it." She took me 
 so completely by surprise, that before I could gather my 
 wits together to make a fitting reply, she went on briskly: 
 "I don't want you to write it before I go. After I leave 
 will be time enough. All my papers are in this drawer 
 here, and you are to take possession of them as soon as I 
 am done with them." It is singular that she never referred 
 to her death but in terms like the above, and rarely even 
 in this way. 
 
 Realizing that whatever must be done must needs be 
 done quickly, I persuaded her to let me take possession 
 of the most important of the papers at once. These were 
 manuscript copies of her poems, some prose articles, and 
 a simple, direct, but somewhat meager autobiography, 
 prepared for the Educational Club in the eighties. At 
 my suggestion, she wrote out more fully the story of how 
 she came to Ripon College, and in various interviews re- 
 viewed the events of her life, telling me one thing and 
 another that helped to, throw brighter light on the past. 
 All these have been woven into the biography, together 
 with the hints and side-lights derived from the chronicles 
 of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, the official records 
 of Ripon College, the odds and ends of newspaper clippings 
 found among Mrs. Tracy's papers, and the letters of loving 
 
 15
 
 16 PREFACE 
 
 and appreciative friends and relatives who had some in- 
 teresting thing to tell about her. 
 
 To all such, who in any way assisted me, I return most 
 sincere thanks. I trust that Mrs. Tracy's belief that her old 
 boys and girls really wanted to have the story of her life 
 may be justified, and that the present volume will but 
 endear her the more to them, and help to perpetuate the 
 memory of a life that was full of poise and sweetness. 
 
 Ada Clark Merrell. 
 302 Elm Street, Ripon, Wisconsin, 
 February 24, 1908.
 
 PART I 
 THE LIFE OF CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY
 
 IN DAYS 0' LANG SYNE 
 
 " The common unrhymed poetry 
 
 Of simple life and country ways." 
 
 Footsore and weary, there arrived, December 20, 1814, 
 at the little clearing of Harmony (afterward Jackson), in 
 Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, two sturdy young 
 Green Mountain boys, Stephen Tucker, just twenty-one, 
 and Joseph Bryant, a youth of eighteen. They had walked 
 the entire distance from their home near Halifax, Wind- 
 ham County, Vermont, to this settlement in the forest 
 primeval. The place was an almost unbroken wilderness, 
 with no township name, no roads nearer than two or 
 three miles from their chosen homes, but it reminded 
 them of their native state. Here, too, were a few of their 
 friends from Vermont, who came in 1812, and by 1813 had 
 commenced the permanent settlement of the place, build- 
 ing their houses for the most part of logs, as there was no 
 sawmill within many miles. These few were followed 
 later, in 1828, by about forty families more from Vermont, 
 so that though there were a few New Hampshire and 
 other Yankee settlers, the clearing was known as the 
 Vermont Settlement, and as early as 1817 was thus desig- 
 nated on the court records, when the road was laid out 
 to it from Ararat, then, too, only a settlement. 
 
 All came to seek their fortunes in what was then liter- 
 ally the Wild West, and, aside from household furnishings 
 
 19
 
 20 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 in plenty, had little else than their stout hearts and strong 
 right arms. But "a man was famous according as he had 
 lifted up axes upon the thick trees" ; and Stephen Tucker 
 was not lacking in valor and brawn, and lifted up his axe 
 to such good purpose that after a year or two he had 
 cleared his lot and built a plain but comfortable log house, 
 and was able to return to Vermont, in the winter of 1816, 
 with some of the other unmarried men, for "the girls they 
 had left behind them." 
 
 His sweetheart, Lucy Harris, of Halifax, Vermont, 
 was a fit mate for the sturdy young pioneer, and they were 
 married February 4, 1816. Returning later to Jackson, 
 Pennsylvania, the summer found them comfortably settled 
 in their life home. Mrs. Tucker brought a plentiful supply 
 of beds, bedding, and household furniture from her New 
 England home, and cheerfully entered upon her duties as 
 mistress of the family in the commodious log house. Life 
 was begun in rather a primitive style, but the other young 
 men and their brides were commencing life under the same 
 conditions; and as all possessed the New England habits 
 of thrift, industry, and moral integrity, and all worked 
 harmoniously to develop their farms and establish good 
 society, the results were most happy. They tasted the 
 joys as well as the hardships of the pioneer, and there was 
 something of exhilaration in the experience. 
 
 In the course of the year, a little son came to the Tucker 
 household, and nineteen months later Clarissa Tucker 
 was born, November 12, 1818. She heralded her own 
 advent much the same as other children, but according to 
 testimony from her mother, she "continued heralding it 
 for several weeks after"; and it startles one to think how, 
 as a little pebble hurled into the stream throws out wider 
 and ever widening circles, this little life was destined to 
 make ever-widening circles of influence whose bounds shall
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 21 
 
 be limited only by eternity. In this little home of hard, 
 unremitting toil were acquired those sterling virtues which 
 made Mrs. Tracy such a power for good in later life. It was 
 a busy little household, and the little Clarissa entered early, 
 not only upon her educational career, but also upon duties 
 of large responsibility. We see the independent little 
 maiden of three and a half years trudging "to the little 
 frame school-house on the hill, half a mile beyond the 
 corners," for by this time roads had been built in every 
 direction through the town. Sometimes, in a spirit of 
 adventure, the children took a shorter route by crossing 
 a log fallen over a creek. 
 
 This school was taught by Evalina Spoor, a beautiful 
 young lady whom Clarissa did not see again after the close 
 of the term till several years had elapsed, and she herself 
 was a schoolma'am, at fourteen, in the neighborhood of her 
 former teacher, now a sedate matron. 
 
 The fair Evalina was still a beautiful woman, and 
 greeted her former pupil with all the warmth of a dear 
 friend, and sent her five children to school to her. Of her 
 first school days, Mrs. Tracy once said in her own charac- 
 teristic way: "I have only two memories that are distinct 
 of this first school which I attended. One memory of 
 seeing daily a penny suspended from the back of the 
 teacher's chair by a string passing through a hole in the 
 penny. At close of the school, this was placed around the 
 neck of the one at the head of the spelling class. The other 
 memory was of a little book about four by three inches, 
 containing several little hymns, or verses, given me by the 
 teacher on the last day of school. One of the hymns was 
 that familiar classic, 'How doth the little busy bee/ and so 
 forth. I committed this to memory on my way home, 
 and recited it to my mother, and for several days was called 
 upon to repeat it for admiring friends who called at the
 
 22 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 house. The school was only of three months' duration, 
 but I had learned to read and to spell very well." 
 
 Clarissa continued to attend school summer and winter 
 until she was ten years old, then only in the winter, as she 
 was needed to assist in the housework. Everywhere in the 
 little settlement, work indoors and out was the order of the 
 day. To the sound of the axe and the crash of the falling 
 trees outside, the buzzing of the spinning-wheel and the 
 rattling of the looms indoors kept busy accompaniment. 
 As all the flax and wool that could be raised had to be 
 worked up into cloth before even homespun garments 
 could be made, it is not strange that before she was ten 
 even, Clarissa had learned to knit, sew, and spin a little. 
 She knew how to pick geese too, and, as she grew older, 
 learned how to bake and brew, "dip" candles, and do all 
 the multitudinous things which the pioneer woman had to 
 do to wrest material in the raw from nature. But the 
 most stable business of the little maid was tending babies, 
 for by this time there were four younger than herself. 
 How she did it is best told in her own words: 
 
 "I took care of the babies most of the time by taking them into 
 the woods, still near the house, or to feed the chickens and goslings, 
 or to hunt hens' eggs, while my charge was safely placed on a pile 
 of hay. In the springtime I spent merry days in the sugar-camp 
 with my father or brother, and there began my study of botany, 
 as wild flowers were abundant before the sugar season was over. 
 
 "At this time occurred a very important event in our home life. 
 In 1829 my father had built a large frame house, into which we 
 moved. One of the saddest memories of my childhood is that of 
 the day we bade adieu to the old log house, hallowed by a mother's 
 love and devotion, by a father's prayers and wise counsels. Dear 
 to my childish heart were the old clock with the weight descending 
 to the floor, the old trundle-bed, where in our earliest years we rM- 
 dren slept under mother's watchful eye, and later the chamber par- 
 titioned off by blankets and coverlets of bright colors, more wonder- 
 ful to me than any Gobelin tapestry ever could be. But most of
 
 '"S GO 
 
 Q 
 O 
 
 W
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 23 
 
 all, sacred for the memory of a little brother, who scarcely opened 
 his eyes upon this world, and whom I only saw robed for the grave. 
 It was the first event which brought to me with thrilling power the 
 thought that a time would come when I too would be laid away in 
 the silence and darkness, and that 'all who breathe would share my 
 destiny. ' The tender prayer of my father, close by the bedside of 
 my mother, when we gathered, on the morning the little one was 
 laid away, led my thoughts up to God in prayer that I might be 
 prepared for this great change that must come to all." 
 
 Other precious memories clustered around the little 
 old log house, memories of beautiful times around the big, 
 open fireplace, when father and mother and all the little 
 
 ones 
 
 "Sat the clean-winged hearth about," 
 
 and stories of "ye olden tymes," the feats of David Bryant, 
 the mighty hunter of the settlement, and stirring poems 
 recited, quickened the blood and kindled the eye; doubtless, 
 too, as in the Whittier home, 
 
 "Between the andirons' straddling feet, 
 The mug of cider simmered slow, 
 The apples sputtered in a row, 
 And close at hand the basket stood, 
 With nuts from brown October's wood." 
 
 Oft while her mother 
 
 "Turned her wheel 
 Or run the new-knit stocking heel," 
 
 Clarissa read aloud tales stranger and more wondrous than 
 than any fiction, from the Missionary Herald, or listened 
 while her mother told the stories of consecration and self- 
 denial of those early missionaries of the cross, Adoniram 
 Judson, Harriet Atwood Newell, and others, whose names 
 are now household words. 
 
 Burned deep into the heart of the young child was that 
 scene by the firelight, when her brother James experienced
 
 24 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 a remarkable conversion, when they two were left alone to 
 guard the little ones safely tucked away in the old trundle- 
 bed, while the folks had gone to meeting. Two awe- 
 struck little souls, pressed down by the heavy conviction 
 of sin, and trembling in fear of an angry God, two little 
 children down on their knees pleading the precious prom- 
 ises, and then the sudden overwhelming joy of answered 
 prayer, and the "old, old story," saved by grace. 
 
 But sweeter far was the picture of the little flock 
 standing nightly with bowed heads, about the simple 
 board reciting in concert, while the mother led, a tender 
 "grace" of thanks, 
 
 "Glory to Thee, my God, this night, 
 For aii the blessings of the light ; 
 Keep me, oh, keep me, King of Kings, 
 Beneath the shadow of Thy wings. 
 
 "Forgive me, Lord, through Thy dear son, 
 The ills which I this day have done, 
 That with the world, myself, and Thee, 
 I, ere I sleep, at peace may be." 
 
 The following poem was evidently written by Mrs. 
 Tracy with these early secnes in view. It was entitled 
 
 VOICES FROM THE PAST 
 
 How many voices come to me, 
 
 Sounding across the vanished years, 
 
 Of those whose forms I no more see, 
 Whose loving presence no more cheers. 
 
 My mother's voice, in gentlest tone, 
 
 In hours of sorrow and of pain, 
 Coming with comfort all its own, 
 
 As sunshine sweet that follows rain.
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 25 
 
 My father's tender words of prayer, 
 
 Just after little Willie died, 
 Committing all to God's dear care, 
 
 Whate'er in life might us betide. 
 
 The schoolmate's voice, so faint and low, 
 
 Speaking to us his last farewell, 
 Saying, "My earthly end has come, I know, 
 
 But now with Jesus I shall dwell." 
 
 Another voice, of playmate dear 
 
 Who long has dwelt in lands afar, 
 Nor shall her form to me appear 
 
 Until we pass through "Gates Ajar." 
 
 A voice in whispers, yet most clear, 
 
 Speaking of heavenly visions bright, 
 And loving words to one most dear, 
 
 While earth was passing from his sight. 
 
 The darling infant's plaintive wail, 
 
 When her brief life was ebbing fast, 
 And mother love could not avail 
 
 As to the unseen world she passed. 
 
 These voices come with healing balm, 
 
 For though they sound on earth no more, 
 
 They speak of sweet and lasting calm 
 Where cares and sorrows all are o'er. 
 
 And Faith, by them her strength renews ; 
 
 Hope, smiling, shows her gentle face, 
 But far above all other views, 
 
 Is that of Love's own crowning grace.
 
 26 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 II 
 
 YOUNG WOMANHOOD 
 
 "It is a great thing not to be a forlorn little wheel that must be 
 turned by hand, but one geared into the machinery of God's eternal 
 laws of moral order." Wilcox. 
 
 The little town of Jackson was so isolated from the 
 markets that its early settlers had hard work to make 
 "both ends meet." Only one of their number had come 
 to the place with any considerable amount of silver in his 
 pocket, and he after a few years was as straightened as 
 the rest. The land-owners from whom they bought their 
 land had taken advantage of their necessities and driven 
 hard bargains with them, so that all were handicapped 
 for years with heavy mortgages, and, according to the 
 Susquehanna chronicles, most of the pioneers had paid 
 twice over for their farms before they finished the final 
 payments. We can understand, then, why Clarissa Tucker 
 began to teach at so tender an age as fourteen, and con- 
 tinued alternately teaching and attending school for sev- 
 eral years. 
 
 This first school was at Jackson Corners, just a quarter 
 of a mile from her home, and she had thirteen scholars. 
 By this time, as she once naively remarked, she had made 
 such attainments in knowledge that she could get nothing 
 new from the teachers in the home schools. After teach- 
 ing two more summers, and a family school winters, there 
 came a time when the cherished plan of her parents and 
 the earnest desire of her own heart were fulfilled, and she 
 was sent away to a school of a higher grade.
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 27 
 
 In the town of Harford, Susquehanna County, a school 
 of such grade had been established in 1817 by the Rev. 
 Lyman Richardson, who had charge of it for ten years. 
 His brother, the Rev. Preston Richardson, a graduate of 
 Hamilton College and a member of Auburn Theological 
 Seminary, being disabled by ill health from preaching, 
 desired to do something for the benefit of the young, so 
 his brother resigned in his favor, and he was in charge at 
 the time Miss Tucker attended school. The institution 
 was called Franklin Academy, and students could take 
 their studies through the sophomore year of a college 
 course. 
 
 Mr. Richardson was a remarkable man, and gave a 
 wonderful stimulus to all who came under his instruction. 
 He lived only a short time, but the school was continued 
 by his brother, Rev. Lyman Richardson, and his son, 
 Willard Richardson. 
 
 Not only Jackson, but the entire county of Susque- 
 hanna, was settled by a very choice kind of folks, people 
 not alone of sincere and genuine piety, but with high ideals, 
 and the practical common sense that knew how to attain 
 results. Miss Tucker's father and mother were of this 
 sort, and down to hoar hairs she was fond of speaking 
 about the goodness of her father and mother; and in- 
 deed, she had reason to, for Deacon Tucker was widely 
 known within the gates. He was not only clerk of the 
 Baptist Church for over forty years, but he had built the 
 church itself, and raised more than $1,000 in cash for its 
 upbuilding. Mrs. Tucker, also, bore an honorable and 
 useful part as one of the early pioneers, and not least among 
 the useful things accomplished by father and mother was 
 the hearty support and sympathy which they accorded 
 Clarissa in her aspirations. They believed in her possi- 
 bilities, and they helped her to choose the best instructors
 
 28 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 obtainable. The name of Richardson represented hon- 
 ored instructors of the highest grade, men not only of fine 
 family, but of breadth of culture and refinement quite 
 above the average. Many of their pupils became distin- 
 guished in after years as ministers, lawyers, judges, sena- 
 tors, and educators. 
 
 Among Miss Tucker's classmates were Galusha A. Grow, 
 for many years member of the House of Representatives, 
 and at one time Speaker of the House; C. R. Buckalew, 
 a Senator of note; the Tylers, three of whom became dis- 
 tinguished educators, and many others. One of her class- 
 mates, the Hon. Thomas H. Dickson of St. Paul, at one 
 of the reunions of the old Franklin Academy students, 
 thus described his old schoolmate: "Miss Tucker was a 
 bright and diligent student, and I remember admiring 
 her square, mathematical forehead (school-girls were am- 
 bitious in those days to show all the forehead they pos- 
 sessed), and admiring the perfect recitations in algebra 
 which it led one to expect. I last saw her in the spring of 
 1842 (not quite fifty-five years ago), presiding at a colla- 
 tion given by the ladies to the young men of Honesdale, 
 the day they brought trees from the borders of the neigh- 
 boring woods and planted them in the then new Court 
 House Square. I was visiting a relative in the village at 
 the time, and shared in the work and the rewarding smiles 
 and bountiful collation." 
 
 From 1835 to 1840, Miss Tucker alternately taught and 
 attended Franklin Academy, often keeping up with her 
 classes, so that she took her place on her return to the 
 school. 
 
 In 1840, Mr. and Mrs. Willard Richardson, two of the 
 teachers in Franklin Academy, went to Honesdale, Wayne 
 County, to open a school of similar grade of two depart- 
 ments, a Ladies' Seminary on the second floor, and the
 
 MR. STEPHEN TUCKER 
 mrs. tract's father
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 29 
 
 Young Men's Academy on the first floor of the same build- 
 ing, though young ladies of advanced grade recited with the 
 gentlemen. Mr. Willard Richardson, like his father, Rev. 
 Lyman Richardson, and uncle, Preston Richardson, was a 
 born educator, and very successful in the new school. He 
 was ably assisted by his wile, formerly Miss Harriet A. 
 Tyler, second daughter of John Tyler, Jr. (a prominent 
 citizen of Harford County), and of Polly Wads worth, his 
 wife, a descendent of Captain Wadsworth, who hid the Con- 
 necticut Charter in the oak, 1687. A woman of intellect 
 and breadth of vision and rare personal graces, she endeared 
 herself to her pupils, and exerted a powerful influence in 
 moulding their character in right directions. 
 
 Miss Tucker was one of their pupils at Franklin Acad- 
 emy, and, recognizing her ability and ambitions, they 
 invited her to assist them in the Honesdale Seminary, and 
 continue her studies at the same time. She did so, and 
 spent two profitable years with them. At this place she 
 had classmates who were a great stimulus to her, Marshall 
 Henshaw, afterward professor in Amherst College, and 
 for many years at the head of Williston Seminary, North- 
 ampton, Massachusetts; Rev. Henry Brownscombe, who 
 became eminent in the Methodist Church; and others, 
 ministers, lawyers, physicians, and jurists. The studies 
 pursued were Latin and French, Whateley's Rhetoric and 
 Logic, Karnes's Elements of Criticism, and Cousin's Psy- 
 chology, studies which ' ' none of the other ladies attempted," 
 as Mrs. Tracy was often in later years wont to remark with 
 justifiable pride. 
 
 In 1842, Mr. and Mrs. Richardson left to found another 
 institution, and the trustees asked Miss Tucker to remain 
 in charge of the Ladies' Seminary, which was thereafter 
 distinct from the Young Men's Academy. 
 
 At the end of two years, Miss Tucker asked leave of
 
 30 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 absence to spend some time in an institution of high grade, 
 to pursue some special studies, and to learn more of the 
 methods of educators of renown. They readily granted her 
 request and supplied her place until her return. She 
 chose Troy Seminary, New York, at that time regarded as 
 superior to any other institution for young ladies in the 
 United States, being several years older than Mount 
 Holyoke, then attracting much attention. In Troy 
 Seminary she continued French under the accomplished 
 Professor Edwards, also drawing and painting under 
 competent teachers. But her stay was brief. 
 
 She has purposed on her return to Honesdale to raise 
 the grade of the school, so that it might rank favorably 
 with other higher institutions in the country. But like 
 many other human plans, it was destined to be frustrated 
 in the usual human way. While teaching in Honesdale, 
 Miss Tucker boarded at the home of Judge Tracy, and there 
 became acquainted with his younger brother, Horace 
 Hyde Tracy. The acquaintance ripened into love, and 
 he asked her to become his wife. His health had been 
 such for several years that he had given up the hope of a 
 home of his own, and of a long-cherished desire to preach 
 the Gospel, but it now seemed quite restored. Her friends 
 cautioned her not to have too much confidence in the per- 
 manence of his good health, but as she herself wrote of her 
 decision, "I was quite willing to take the risk, as my 
 heart responded fully to the nobility and devotion of his, 
 and in a few months we were united in marriage."
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 31 
 
 The following poem was written by Mrs. Tracey in her 
 youth, and is of interest, as showing what choices she made 
 even then: 
 
 IN FANCY'S WORLD 
 
 I love to dwell in fancy's world 
 
 Of bright, unreal forms; 
 To see the beauties there unfurled, 
 
 Far, far from earthly storms. 
 
 O yes, I could forever view 
 
 The glories shining there, 
 And yet they'd seem forever new, 
 
 So soft, so bright, so fair. 
 
 Ah! sure I fain would linger long 
 
 Within these fairy lands, 
 While like the voice of sweetest song, 
 
 Each scene the soul expands. 
 
 But still I know it is not well 
 
 T' indulge the immortal mind 
 In reverie; though sweet the spell, 
 
 'Twill fail the "soul to bind." 
 
 There is a pure, unmingled joy 
 
 The longing soul may share, 
 A real bliss that ne'er shall cloy, 
 
 To free from sin and care. 
 
 Then fancy's joys I would forego, 
 
 Nor offer at her shrine 
 My praise; for well, full well I know 
 Her bliss is not divine. 
 1838.
 
 32 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 III 
 
 JOY AND SORROW 
 
 "Meanwhile the mind, from pleasure less, 
 Withdraws into its happiness; 
 
 Yet it creates, transcending these 
 Far other worlds and other seas, 
 Annihilating all that's made 
 To a green thought in a green shade." 
 
 Andrew Marvel. 
 
 One would almost hesitate to lift the veil from this part 
 of Mrs. Tracy's life were it not that the strength and 
 beauty of her character and the triumph of her faith stand 
 out in such bold relief against the gloomy background of 
 earth's heaviest sorrows, that the revelation cannot but be 
 an inspiration and a help to others in similar trials. She 
 found the Shepherd ready to comfort with rod and staff, 
 and though she passed through the Valley of the Shadow of 
 Death, she learned, through His tender guidance, that it 
 was the Valley of the Shadow only of Death. 
 
 Miss Tucker was married to Horace Hyde Tracy, at 
 Honesdale, Pennsylvania, in May, 1844, by their beloved 
 pastor, Rev. Henry A. Rowlands. Horace Hyde Tracy 
 was born in the town of Columbus, Chenango County, 
 New York, May 26, 1811. He had planned to be a minister, 
 but his health being delicate, he came to Honesdale in 1840, 
 to be with his brother, Judge T. H. R. Tracy, and to engage 
 in work that would keep him out of doors as much as pos- 
 sible. 
 
 Mr. T. H. R. Tracy was division superintendent on the
 
 HORACE HYDE TRACY
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 33 
 
 railroad of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, and 
 he detailed his brother to look after the company store and 
 boat-yard. He remained in this employment until a short 
 time before his death. His health improved, and he was 
 able to do his work comfortably. 
 
 Miss Tucker came to Honesdale in 1840 also, and was 
 associated as a teacher with Rev. and Mrs. Willard Rich- 
 ardson in the Honesdale Academy. She saw Mr. Horace 
 H. Tracy only at church the first year. Then when the 
 Richardsons, with whom she boarded, left to teach else- 
 where, she was asked to take charge of the Honesdale 
 Academy, and Judge T. H. R. Tracy, one of the trus- 
 tees of the school, offered her board at his house. The 
 young people, being under the same roof, naturally saw 
 a good deal of each other, though they did not become 
 engaged until a few months before their marriage, and 
 not presumably [until after Miss Tucker's return from 
 Troy Seminary, New York, at the holidays. Ambitious 
 to fit herself for larger responsibilities, she had contem- 
 plated a much longer stay at Troy than just one term, 
 but as she herself wrote, "my plans were frustrated in 
 the usual way." 
 
 The marriage was a very congenial one, and four happy 
 years followed, though Mr. Tracy was practically an in- 
 valid for the last two years. Two children were born to 
 them, Horace James Tracy, February 22, 1845, and little 
 Clarissa Aurelia, October 3, 1847. Mrs. Tracy continued 
 to teach for a year and a half, and then she gave up her 
 school work on account of her husband's poor health. He 
 was better and then worse, apparently better one year 
 before he died than two years. He kept up and did some- 
 thing in the store most of the time, but as his physician 
 advised him to be in the open air as much as possible, he 
 spent most of his time superintending the Canal boat-yard,
 
 34 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 purchasing material for building, and repairing boats, and 
 until six weeks of his death went once or twice a week to the 
 boat-yard. 
 
 At an early age he had made a profession of religion, 
 devoting himself with all his powers to the service of his 
 Redeemer. He became a member of the Honesdale Presby- 
 terian Church, July 18, 1840, the year of his arrival in the 
 place. And was elected elder October 15., 1842, at a critical 
 time in the history of the church. There had been a split 
 over a minister, who was unworthy, and six elders had 
 resigned. Colonel Seeley and Mr. Horace H. Tracy were 
 the only two upon whom all could agree. 
 
 On the church records the following tribute was paid 
 to Mr. Tracy: "In discharging his duties as elder he was 
 firm on the side of truth, acting with a conscientious regard 
 to the great interest committed to his trust. His conduct 
 was uniformly kind, conciliatory, and upright. His integ- 
 rity was unbending, and his zeal was earnest and con- 
 sistent. His piety was of a decided character. There was 
 no turning away in his heart from that religion which he 
 early professed." He was also most genial and full of fun, 
 and earned the sobriquet of "Father" Tracy, because he 
 once jokingly told Miss Tucker that she did not observe the 
 Scriptures sufficiently and "entreat an elder as a father." 
 Small wonder that to the last days of her life Mrs. Tracy 
 treasured the memory of those happy years, and spoke of 
 them, as "blessed years, though filled with sorrows." 
 
 Just two years before he died, Mr. Tracy was ordered 
 to the seaside to see what the invigorating sea air would 
 do for him. From there he wrote his wife a beautiful 
 letter and enclosed a poem, "A Husband's Prayer in 
 Absence," which he found in a newspaper. This original 
 clipping was found nearly threescore years after, carefully 
 treasured among Mrs. Tracy's personal papers, worn and
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 35 
 
 frayed and almost ready to crumble to pieces, and well- 
 nigh illegible from frequent handling. Fortunately Mrs. 
 Tracy had told the story of it in "An Interesting Incident," 
 published in the Wisconsin Puritan several years later, 
 and had had the poem reprinted. 
 
 The sojourn at the seashore availed little, and Mr. 
 Tracy came home little benefited by his stay. He kept 
 up bravely, visiting the boat-yard once or twice a day, 
 until six weeks before he died, when he took to his bed. 
 To the last, he kept up his serene courage, and his sick-room 
 was not the scene of despair and anguish, but of sunny 
 resignation and triumphant hope. The beloved pastor, 
 Dr. Henry A. Rowland, visiting him a short time before 
 his entrance into life eternal, and talking with him about 
 the outcome of his sickness, said, "Now you look the 
 King of Terrors full in the face, how do you feel respecting 
 his approach?" Mr. Tracy's instant reply was, "He is 
 the easiest conquered of any foe I ever met." 
 
 Mrs. Tracy was not present when he said this, but 
 heard it first when she listened to the funeral sermon, for, 
 with her usual thriftiness, she "generally took the time of 
 the pastor's calls to do some needed thing about the house.' ' 
 For six months or more, they had talked of his going home 
 as familiarly as of anything else. Mr. Tracy died June 9, 
 1848, "with words of triumph on his lips, and a rich 
 legacy of prayers for the blessing of God on his family." 
 The newspapers of the day say that his funeral was at- 
 tended by an immense concourse of people. Dr. H. A. 
 Rowland preached the funeral sermon from the text, 
 John xvii. 9, reading from the Scriptures the seventeenth 
 Psalm. 
 
 Fifty-seven years later, that triumphant death-bed scene 
 was more vivid to Mrs. Tracy's mind than even passing 
 events. It was my blessed privilege to stand with her
 
 36 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 one morning early in June, 1905, on our south porch. 
 The orchard was swelling with pink buds, ready to burst 
 into bloom; the pasture, all vivid with the wonderful 
 green of early June, lay just beyond the glowing apple 
 boughs, and the air was full of summer prophecies. Mrs. 
 Tracy paused abruptly as we came out of the house and 
 the scene in all its loveliness burst upon our view, and 
 with an eye that seemed to pierce beyond time and eternity, 
 recited with deep and solemn feeling the following well- 
 known lines: 
 
 "Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood 
 Stand dressed in living green ; 
 So to the Jews old Canaan stood, 
 While Jordan rolled between." 
 
 After an interval, as if that long-ago scene once more 
 passed in review before her inward eye, she continued 
 slowly and with perceptible pauses between the sentences: 
 
 "That was my husband's favorite hymn. When he 
 lay on his death-bed he recited it to me, while he clasped 
 my hand. I can never forget it, nor how joyous and 
 radiant he looked as he pointed upward, and cried, ' Christ 
 meets His children. The redeemed!' " Truly it had been 
 a "green thought in a green shade" through all the years, 
 even down to a green old age, and Mrs. Tracy, through the 
 gates of sorrow, had found the secret of perennial youth. 
 
 The events that followed her husband's death are best 
 told in Mrs. Tracy's own words: 
 
 "We had spent so much of our small means during my 
 husband's sickness, that very little was left to me. This 
 fact never gave me a moment of anxiety. One year later, 
 I began a small school in my own house, which increased 
 so rapidly that I rented a building and employed an as- 
 sistant. Two years later, a large academy was built in 
 our place. I was asked to transfer my school to this
 
 CLARISSA AURELIA TRACY
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 37 
 
 institution and take a department of the instruction, which 
 I did after much deliberation. Here I had three delightful 
 associates for four years. I had for pupils during those 
 years several who have risen into eminence, Judge Henry 
 Seeley of Honesdale, Judge Alfred Hand of Scranton, 
 Pennsylvania, Dr. D. B. St. John Roosa of the Eye and 
 Ear Infirmary, New York, the lamented poet, Edward 
 Rowland Sill, several lawyers, ministers, and business men, 
 whom I might mention. 
 
 "The frequent meetings at my home of the Academy 
 teachers and students, for literary work and conversation, 
 were a great source of stimulus and pleasure. 
 
 "My little girl, Clarissa Aurelia, died from an attack of 
 measles, April 3, 1851, nearly three years after her father, 
 and my boy entered the primary department of the Acad- 
 emy. We had a delightful and a prosperous school, with 
 five teachers, but I began to think of a project I had before 
 I was married, of going south or west, where advantages 
 were fewer, and where I might establish a school of my own. 
 I thought of it by night and by day, and prayed over it." 
 
 AN INTERESTING INCIDENT 
 
 PUBLISHED IN THE WISCONSIN PURITAN. DATE UNKNOWN. 
 
 In the month of June, 1846, an invalid husband and 
 father left his home, to try for a few weeks the effect of 
 sea air. He spent the first Sabbath in New York. From 
 there he wrote to his wife the letter from which I make 
 the following extract: "I did not feel able to attend 
 divine service this morning, and thought it would not be 
 wrong to write to you, knowing your great anxiety to hear 
 from me. I had just seated myself for the purpose, when 
 a rap at my door was followed by the entrance of a newsboy.
 
 38 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 My first thought was to say I do not patronize newsboys 
 on Sunday, but somehow, I instinctively rose, took the 
 'Sunday Sun,' and paid him for it, and the first thing on 
 which my eye rested was the poetry entitled ' A Husband's 
 Prayer in Absence.' I read it and re-read it, and it ex- 
 pressed my feelings so exactly that I enclose it to you. I 
 would not have one line no, not one word altered." 
 In less than two years the husband left his home to return 
 no more; but there remained the influence of a holy life 
 and the sweet fragrance of prayer. 
 
 The verses to which allusion has been made were placed 
 for safe-keeping among choice mementoes of the departed. 
 They have been shown to many persons, but no one has 
 been found who had ever seen them before, or who had 
 any idea of the author. Through long years of widowhood, 
 their influence has been strong and sweet. Often at the 
 "morning's dawn" and "day's declining" has the "Bless 
 her, O Father," come with its soothing power; in the 
 "every duty of her life," imparted strength to the some- 
 times fainting heart. It has prompted and made sacred 
 "the kindly mission." It has rung out over tfee desolation 
 of bereavement, and made "her lot with blessings rife" 
 such blessings as He only gives who answers prayers. 
 
 The reprint of these verses may cause some other eye 
 that reads them to cease its weeping, and impart strength 
 to some other "spirit that feels its courage falter." 
 
 The following are the verses referred to: 
 
 A HUSBAND'S PRAYER IN ABSENCE 
 
 Oh Father! Thou in whom I live, 
 
 And trust for life immortal, 
 When Time my farewell shall receive 
 
 At Death's dark portal; 
 Source of all blessing, unto Thee 
 
 I bring my fond petition;
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 39 
 
 Yet to Thy will my spirit be 
 In low submission. 
 
 Thou in Thy goodness hast filled up 
 
 Life's chalice all with sweetness, 
 And one bright treasure to my cup 
 
 Imparts completeness; 
 That treasure is the peerless love 
 
 Of her who ever shareth 
 Each pleasure that my heart may move, 
 
 Each pain it beareth. 
 
 For her, oh Father! I will pray, 
 
 Thy Son's great merit pleading, 
 Who sitteth on Thy throne alway 
 
 There interceding; 
 Guard Thou my darling by Thy power, 
 
 Thy own strong arm surround her; 
 Bid Thy kind angels every hour 
 
 Keep watch around her. 
 
 Afar from her I sadly roam, 
 
 Among the strange a stranger, 
 And sometimes with sweet thoughts of home, 
 
 Some fears of danger! 
 Then, when my heart has sunk, and Fear 
 
 Laid her dark hand upon me, 
 From sorrow and almost despair, 
 
 Thy love has won me. 
 
 I know I cannot shield her form 
 
 From sickness or from sorrow; 
 I know that o 'er her some dread storm 
 
 May break to-morrow; 
 And I may feel no pang the while, 
 
 May smile while she doth languish ; 
 Some trifle may my heart beguile 
 
 Amid her anguish! 
 
 Oh, Father! let me ever feel 
 In Thee a sweet reliance,
 
 40 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 And to each boding thought of ill 
 
 I'll bid defiance; 
 Bless Thou my treasure! with Thy care 
 
 Vouchsafe her Thy protection, 
 And I will never more despair, 
 
 Or feel dejection. 
 
 Oh! bless her at the morning's dawn, 
 
 And at the day's declining, 
 And when the silent hours steal on, 
 
 Night's shadows twining; 
 Bless her, oh Father! when she kneels 
 
 Beside the dear home-altar, 
 And bless her when her spirit feels 
 
 It's courage falter. 
 
 Bless her when on her youthful cheek 
 
 The red rose tints are blooming; 
 And bless her when her frame is weak, 
 
 Her bright eye glowing; 
 In every duty of her life, 
 
 In every kindly mission, 
 Oh! make her lot with blessing rife, 
 
 A sweet fruition. 
 
 In an old portfolio of Mrs. Tracy's was found, in her 
 handwriting and over her signature, two poems in blank 
 verse, written the summer that her husband passed away. 
 
 These poems, "The Sufferer" and "The Death-bed 
 Scene," are so remarkable, as showing the largeness of her 
 faith and the native courage of her mind, that they are 
 given entire without comment. 
 
 THE SUFFERER 
 
 Weary months passed on, and lengthened 
 Into years, while I watched with 
 Anxious eye the fatal work of 
 Life's insidious destroyer.
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 41 
 
 And I watched with no common eye, 
 For his victim was blent with life's 
 Dearest hopes and brightest visions. 
 Oft at bright noon and dusky even 
 I raised my pleading cry to Heaven, 
 
 spare, my God! Spare him to me! 
 Overwhelm not yet my bowing soul 
 In deepest anguish! I plead 
 
 His faithful promises, but alas! 
 His wise interpretation was 
 To shorten the work and remove 
 To glory him on whom my soul 
 So fondly and so firmly leaned 
 For comfort in life's dreary path. 
 The sufferer in calmness and 
 Patience lived on while his wasting 
 Form and brightening eye betokened 
 Early death, for his soul was long 
 Since stayed on God, an anchor sure, 
 Within the veil was cast. "O how 
 Could mourning fill his breast ? He who 
 So soon would be from blighting sin 
 Forever free." Bright morn of blest 
 Resurrection would restore what 
 Now seemed lost to me. So then 
 
 1 bowed in low submission and said, 
 "Oh God! Thy will, not mine, be done." 
 
 THE DEATH-BED SCENE 
 
 Earth's loveliest green, in richest 
 
 And freshest beauty, shone on hill 
 
 And sparkled in dale. The bright sun 
 
 Rose in majesty and glory 
 
 On that ever to be remembered 
 
 Morn! Anxiously and painfully 
 
 The night had passed. A fond brother 
 
 And a nearer friend had sought in 
 
 Vain to ease the sufferer. No 
 
 More rest for him on earth. 'Twas come,
 
 42 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 The last, fatal, long-dreaded hour. 
 
 (Dreaded by friends, I mean). For him 
 
 It had no power to move. Jesus 
 
 Was his polar star, heaven his goal. 
 
 And thus guided, he looked firmly 
 
 And steadily to his resting 
 
 Place, e'en now in loveliest view! 
 
 Fainter and shorter grew his breath, 
 
 While angel strains were on his lips. 
 
 They told of glory, Christ, and Heaven. 
 
 Love's gentle pressure of the hand 
 
 Enclosed in his, spoke consciousness, 
 
 E'en in his dying gasp, and told 
 
 A long, a last farewell below. 
 
 He's gone. O, desolating words! 
 
 My God! O bear my fainting 
 
 Spirit up, and soothe my bleeding 
 
 Heart. Thy healing balm alone hath power. 
 
 Darkened are all my earthly hopes. 
 
 I say not destroyed, for I have 
 
 Yet two sweet prattlers left to soothe 
 
 My solitary hours. But oh! 
 
 The thought that they are fatherless 
 
 Sends to my heart a thrilling pang. 
 
 May I but train them for the skies, 
 
 For a place among that white-robed 
 
 Throng around the throne. We all will 
 
 Soon be there, a glorious meeting. 
 
 Linger, O linger near me, sweet spirit 
 
 Of the loved, the "blessed dead," though I may 
 
 Not with mortal eyes behold thee, or hear 
 
 Thy noiseless tread, yet linger near me. 
 
 May thy holy influence o'er my heart, 
 
 And life be shed. I would not worship thee 
 
 With a vain idolatry. I know my 
 
 God hath said, "Before ho idol bow thy 
 
 Knees." O I would give Him homage supreme. 
 
 Yet, sweet spirit, if thou hast an earthly 
 
 Mission and art free to choose thy station, 
 
 Linger, I beseech thee, near me, to chase 
 
 Away the gloom of earth, and silently
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 43 
 
 Allure my soul away to heaven, thy own 
 Glorious home. I will feel that thou art 
 Near, and tellest me of joys in store for 
 Me above that days and months will swiftly 
 Pass, and I, too, will join that ransomed throng 
 To praise the Lamb and do His holy will. 
 1848.
 
 44 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 IV 
 
 A MOMENTOUS DECISION 
 
 "The decision of a moment is often a momentous decision." 
 
 How Mrs. Tracy came to Ripon is told so well in her 
 own words, in a brief autobiographical sketch which she 
 prepared in 1883 for the Ripon Educational Club, of which 
 she was a member, that it is thought best to give it entire, 
 as she gave it.* 
 
 "In the autumn of 1855 I began to feel a revival of my 
 early desire to teach somewhere in less favored places. 
 I knew some one could take my place in the Academy who 
 might not be willing to got to new and harder fields. The 
 desire grew and became intense. I think I sincerely de- 
 sired to be guided by One who never errs in His plans. 
 
 "My thoughts seemed to be directed to the West rather 
 than to the South at this time. I corresponded with 
 former Governor Slade of Vermont, who during several 
 years had brought to the West companies of teachers. 
 I thought he might direct me to a place for establishing a 
 girls' school. He referred me to some places in Indiana 
 and Illinois. 
 
 "About this time three families of my acquaintance 
 decided to move to Wisconsin, the Cranes, the Robinsons, 
 and Mr. Williams and family, of Seeleyville, Pennsylvania. 
 Mr. Williams went West to look for a favorable location, 
 and decided on Neenah. Soon after his return, at a 
 
 This sketch was also part of a special correspondence page by Mrs. Ada C. 
 Merrell on Mrs. Tracy, a Veteran Teacher, which appeared in the Milwaukee 
 Sentinel, December 13, 1903, and later in part in College Days, for December, 
 1903.
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 45 
 
 Christmas party at his home, he told me of his plans, and 
 said: 
 
 " 'Mrs. Tracy, you'd better go with us and teach our 
 children for us.' A sensation like a flash of lightning came 
 over me, and I thought perhaps this is the call for which 
 I have prayed. The impression was so strong that I 
 hardly knew what I did or said or ate while there. When 
 Mr. Williams took me home that evening I said to him: 
 ' I am not sure but I may act on the suggestion you 
 made, though I suppose you were only joking.' 
 
 " 'Indeed, I was not,' he said. 'I meant what I said. 
 I was asked in Neenah whether or not I knew of some one 
 who could teach a private school and help in church work 
 and Sunday school. You came to my mind at once, and 
 I said, 'Yes.'" 
 
 "Then came thoughts of my dear pupils and friends of 
 many years' standing; the precious graves of my husband 
 and my little daughter; my parents in their declining 
 years; the church and Sunday school I had loved so well; 
 the dear brother-in-law, who had been as a father to me; 
 and my pastor, who had married us, baptized my children, 
 buried my husband and little child. Still the impression 
 of something like a divine call was on me. 
 
 "Several remarkable incidents occurred within the 
 next few months that loosened the ties that bound me to 
 my old home. My pastor was called to Newark, New 
 Jersey; my brother-in-law, Judge Tracy, died, and the 
 rented house in which I lived was sold. So, in mind, I 
 fully decided to leave my home. One thing still made me 
 hesitate. I did not know what my mother might think. 
 I wrote to her, stating my plans, and asked her how she 
 felt about it. The answer came: 
 
 " 'I have long felt that it is your wish to do God's will 
 in any way He marks out for you. If you think this is
 
 46 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 the way He leads you, I can only say "Go." ' I hesitated 
 no longer. 
 
 "On June 6, 1856, our company of seventeen left for 
 Wisconsin. We came to Oswego, New York, crossed 
 Lake Ontario, took cars for Collingwood, thence by 
 steamer to Sheboygan, by stage to Fond du Lac, then by 
 boat to Neenah, which we reached on June 13th. I 
 opened a private school, which I continued for three years. 
 I soon saw that Neenah was not the place in which to es- 
 tablish a permanent school, as business was the great 
 object of the people. 
 
 "I left Neenah on the 23d of June, just three years from 
 the time I arrived there. Before leaving, I was invited 
 to take a position in a ladies' seminary in Indianapolis, 
 Indiana, with former associate teachers, but I decided to 
 visit my Eastern home before giving my decision. 
 
 "I had not been in Honesdale more than two days 
 before two of the trustees of the Honesdale Academy 
 called on me, and in most cordial manner welcomed me 
 back to Honesdale, and requested me to take my old place 
 in the Academy. I told them I would consider the matter 
 and report later, but I felt quite inclined to accept. Mean- 
 while I received a letter from Mr. Bowen, of Ripon, who 
 was in New York to purchase goods for his store, saying 
 that in a meeting of the trustees of what was then Brock- 
 way College, he, as one of the trustees, was commissioned 
 to offer me the position of teacher, and Superintendent of 
 the Ladies' Department of the College, and hoped that 
 I would accept. 
 
 "I had very pleasant memories of Ripon, for while in 
 Neenah, a sister of Mrs. William Foster, Mrs. Taylor of 
 Ripon, had sent me an invitation to her daughter's wed- 
 ding. I had gone, and while there had made the acquaint- 
 ance of Mrs. Abram Thomas, sister of Miss Radfield, an
 
 MRS. LUCY HARRIS TUCKER 
 mrs. tracy's mother
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 47 
 
 associate teacher in Honesdale Academy days. Through 
 them I became acquainted with Mr. and Mrs. J. Bowen, 
 who had come to Ripon from Carbondale, Pennsylvania, 
 and were well acquainted with cousins of mine in Susque- 
 hanna County. I visited the three families in Ripon three 
 or four times during jny stay in Neenah, went to see the 
 new college buildings and other places, and was greatly 
 attracted by it. Mr. Bowen's letter surprised me very 
 much, as I had about decided to stay at Honesdale. But 
 the more I thought about it, the more I felt that to go to 
 Ripon would be nearer to carrying out my first plans than 
 anything I had done. 
 
 "I prayed over the matter. The conflicting calls 
 caused one of the greatest struggles of my life. The time 
 drew near when I must write to Mr. Bowen. I was stay- 
 ing with Mrs. Judge Tracy, in her old home on Front 
 Street. I felt that I must go to my room and have the 
 struggle out there. I felt as never before that I wanted 
 to leave the decision with God. I asked Him to decide 
 for me. I committed my way wholly to Him, and felt a 
 great peace, and went to bed and slept till morning. I 
 awoke in the same peace of mind, and with the decision 
 that I would go to Ripon. The story of my life in Ripon 
 has been varied with light and shadows, but I have not 
 felt for a moment that I was not divinely led." 
 
 " As near as I can estimate, I have taught in all sixty- 
 four years. I have taught in nearly forty-five years of 
 my active connection with Ripon College every graduate 
 of Ripon since, up to 1895 or 1896, and some since. I have 
 taught seven or eight judges, including Judge Seeley and 
 Judge Hand of Scranton, Pennsylvania, also Judge James 
 Blanchard of New York, and Judge Charles Pond of Min- 
 neapolis, seven or eight senators, several scores of lawyers 
 and doctors, and four or more score of ministers, and about
 
 48 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 a dozen or more of missionaries in the foreign field. I am 
 profoundly thankful to my Heavenly Father that He has 
 permitted me to do this work."* 
 
 The fourth stanza of the following poem has reference 
 to the momentous decision: 
 
 MY EBENEZER 
 
 "Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, 
 and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying 'Hitherto hath the Lord 
 helped us.'" 1 Sam. vii. 12. 
 
 When hope was light and life was fair, 
 My youthful heart devoid of care, 
 As then I reached a wished-for goal, 
 I said in secret to my soul, 
 
 Now here, I '11 raise my Ebenezer. 
 
 But as the years flew swiftly past, 
 Dark clouds my earthly sky o'ercast; 
 Yet with answering faith I knew 
 The promises of God were true; 
 Again I raised my Ebenezer. 
 
 A chastening hand oppressed me sore; 
 The joys of earth seemed mine no more, 
 But many loving friends were near, 
 Giving their words of hope and cheer; 
 In faith, I raised my Ebenezer. 
 
 When once I came to parting ways, 
 I stood in doubt and great amaze, 
 I could not tell which path to tread, 
 But soon a voice my footsteps led ; 
 In hope, I raised my Ebenezer. 
 
 Many a milestone I have passed, 
 Each brings me nearer to the last, 
 
 * This paragraph is a quotation from a letter written to Mr. Stolker of Hones- 
 dale, in response to a request for the story of her life for the record in the 
 annals of the Honesdale Church, of which Mrs. Tracy was a member.
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 49 
 
 And now the eightieth comes to view, 
 With friends so loving and so true; 
 In love, I raised my Ebenezer. 
 
 O Thou who art the Truth, the Way, 
 
 Thy hand hath led me day by day, 
 
 In work or rest, in joy or pain, 
 
 Once more I give the sweet refrain, 
 I raise my Ebenezer, Lord, 
 In faith's and hope's and love's accord. 
 
 A CHILD OF PRAYER 
 
 Among the odds and ends of newspaper clippings found 
 among Mrs. Tracy's papers was the following article from 
 "The American Magazine," signed "C," Mrs. Tracy's 
 usual signature to such contributions. We have no doubt 
 that the child of prayer referred to was her own son, Horace, 
 who joined the church at Neenah, when twelve years of age. 
 A letter and a poem to her son, Horace, on his tenth birth- 
 day were also found among her papers, and are reproduced 
 in this connection. 
 
 "At our last communion season in this place, among those 
 who "stood before the Lord," and called men and angels to 
 witness their decision to serve Him, was a boy of twelve 
 summers. Several months had passed since he felt that he 
 had given his heart to the Saviour, and he earnestly desired 
 publicly to profess his love to Him; his pastor and the ses- 
 sion thought it would not be right to deny him the privilege 
 
 " While I sat, an interested spectator of this scene, 
 another was vividly recalled. 
 
 "More than a thousand miles eastward of my present 
 location, twelve years before, in a quiet parlor on a Sab- 
 bath morning, just after this boy saw the light of the world, 
 a small household was gathered around the family altar, 
 and the father in prayer and faith solemnly gave this child
 
 50 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 to God; he petitioned that whatever else was denied him, 
 he might have the converting and sanctifying influence of 
 the Holy Spirit. 
 
 " All present at that hour, felt that the prayer of faith 
 had been offered. A few years after, that father went home 
 to his everlasting rest. Through weary months of suffering, 
 and even down to the entrance of the "dark valley," he 
 testified to the faithfulness of God. 
 
 " And now in this distant spot, as I beheld this child 
 devote himself to the service of the God of his father, I 
 felt that there was a mysterious, a holy connection between 
 that paternal dedication and the vows the child now as- 
 sumed. To me it was a most beautiful and impressive 
 testimony of the faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God." 
 
 C. 
 
 Honesdalb, Pa., February 22, 1855. 
 
 My dear, precious boy: It is ten years to-day since your little 
 eyes first looked out on this world ten years since your little 
 heart began its beatings which shall not cease until the hour your 
 spirit takes its flight to the unseen world. 
 
 It is ten years since I first felt the gushing of a mother's love, 
 when I looked on your tiny face and said, 'Is this indeed my child, 
 and must I train him for weal or woe?' Oh, how insignificant I felt 
 as I looked through time and into eternity. 
 
 But there was a scene after this to which I now wish to call your 
 attention. It will be ten years to-morrow since your dear father 
 knelt in our little room, and thanked God for the gift of a little son ; 
 then fervently and earnestly dedicated him to His service; he 
 prayed that his life might be spared to live and labor for His glory 
 even now those tones seem to sound in my ears, and make their 
 impress on my heart, as when it responded Amen to these petitions. 
 
 Ten years you have been spared. We have seen that father's 
 eyes close in death, and his form borne away from us. We have 
 laid your darling sister by his side in their last sleep. They are 
 happy in heaven. Shall we go there also ? Yes, if we love and serve 
 God while here we may be happy with Him forever. 
 
 Your father's dying prayers were that his children might meet
 
 JAMES HORACE TRACY 
 
 AT TEX YEARS OF AGE
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 51 
 
 him in heaven. You are now old enough to give God your heart, 
 and to love and serve Him all the rest of your life. Will you not 
 think of it? Will you not earnestly ask Him to teach and guide 
 you by His spirit? so that whether your life be long or short, you 
 may feel that you have not lived in vain. 
 
 Affectionately your Mother, 
 
 C. T. Tracy. 
 
 TO HORACE TRACY 
 
 I have many a sweet treasure, 
 
 Many a cup of joy, 
 And rich blessings without measure; 
 But my dearest earthly treasure 
 
 Is my fatherless boy. 
 
 At morn, the first object of thought, 
 
 I listen for his voice, 
 To learn if the lesson I 've taught 
 To his mind improvement has brought, 
 
 Which makes my heart rejoice. 
 
 I love to feel his arms entwine 
 
 Around my neck at eve ; 
 I could all else on earth resign, 
 And bless, O God! thy hand divine 
 
 While I this boon receive. 
 
 Whate'er in life shall me betide, 
 
 Or my best thoughts employ, 
 This one o 'er all shall preside, 
 In the path of virtue to guide 
 
 My dear fatherless boy. 
 
 I know in future he will stray 
 
 Where sin's bright ways allure; 
 But while I tread life's rugged way 
 To God I '11 lift my heart and pray 
 To make His covenant sure. 
 
 When thoughts of that sweet home of rest, 
 And treasures gathered there,
 
 52 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 Shall come to calm this troubled breast 
 I '11 raise to God the great request 
 That he those joys may share. 
 
 If I those heavenly courts shall see 
 
 And praise my tongue employ, 
 How very sweet the thought will be 
 In that bright place to welcome thee, 
 Dear, dear fatherless boy. 
 
 HONESDALE, Pa., 1855. 
 
 MRS. TRACY IN NEENAH 
 
 The impressions of a child of eight years are only of 
 value as they show the impressions brought to bear upon 
 the plastic material. It was at that age I was placed in the 
 school Mrs. Tracy had opened in Neenah, Wisconsin, and 
 I knew her only that winter of my life. That I have seemed 
 to know her always is but another testimony to the strength 
 of her personality. She had come out there, a widow with 
 one child, an idolized boy, but even at that age, and pos- 
 sessed myself of parents who put character before every 
 other consideration, it was evident even to me that all 
 hopes for her only son were centered in his becoming a man, 
 strong with the strength of goodness. She and Horace 
 were frequently and familiarly at our home, but at school 
 or at home, we knew that Mrs. Tracy had but one standard: 
 "Is this right? Then let us do it, though the Heavens 
 fall." Sensitive she was, and frail we thought her, perhaps 
 because she was in the first years of her grief, following the 
 loss of her beloved husband; but though it was a winter 
 which seemed severe indeed to the strangers from eastern 
 Pennsylvania, and I was being carried through the heavy 
 snows on the shoulders of a Norwegian seven feet high, 
 Mrs. Tracy went to and from the schoolroom as if she felt
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 53 
 
 the hidden power within that slender form. Woe to the 
 child who tried any royal road to learning, or who cared so 
 little for her standing as to be absent without cause. Her 
 keen eyes could flash, and her tongue cut keenly too. Those 
 eyes tested your metal, her voice demanded the best that 
 was in you. And when the long school day, from nine to 
 four, with its hour at noon, was over (I have heard my 
 mother say that Mrs. Tracy took twenty minutes of that 
 time to write her letters), who so much appreciated around 
 the evening hearth as she! ' And the members of our little 
 circle carried with them always the remembrance of Mrs. 
 Tracy as a faithful friend, with an intellect awake to the 
 best things, and a warm belief in the future of that western 
 world for whose promise she had left a "safe" and culti- 
 vated eastern life. Of such stuff are the Mary Lyons 
 made, and the vigor, insight, faith, and self-sacrifice that 
 has gone so deeply into the history of Ripon College was 
 akin to that which laid the foundations of old Holyoke. 
 
 Fannie Ruth Robinson, 
 
 Oxford, Ohio.
 
 54 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 V 
 
 MRS. TRACY IN COLLEGE PIONEERING 
 
 "Those who love to trace a divine hand always have a divine 
 hand to trace." Mrs. Tracy's Scrap-book. 
 
 Some of the finest and strongest qualities in Mrs. C. T. 
 Tracy's character were displayed in the pioneer activities 
 of Ripon College. She was appointed to the double office 
 of matron and teacher October 3, 1859, and took up her 
 work at once; and she continued in connection with the 
 college to the end of her life, November 13, 1905, when 
 she died at the great age of eighty-seven years and one 
 day. When she came to the work, it is but the truth to 
 say that there was little more to the college than a charter 
 and a name. There was a campus and two partially com- 
 pleted buildings; but a heavy debt, the larger part of which 
 was drawing interest at the rate of twelve per cent, kept 
 the institution in condition of poverty and peril. A 
 forced sale of the entire property would probably have 
 realized barely enough to pay the debts. The First Wis- 
 consin Cavalry were allowed to occupy the-grounds in the 
 autumn of 1861, and their leaving was so late that the 
 school was suspended for one year. Mrs. Tracy, how- 
 ever, occupied rooms in one of the buildings, and furnished 
 board for some of the officers of the regiment, and she 
 gathered a number of pupils whom she taught in a kind 
 of a select school. College work was resumed in the 
 autumn of 1862, and the number of students soon 
 greatly increased, splendid fellows from the army drop- 
 ping in as the terms of their enlistment expired.
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 ABOUT 1868
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 55 
 
 Here came the opportunity for the display of Mrs. 
 Tracy's superior qualities. Of endowments there were 
 none; in library and laboratory equipments there was 
 little; but in the scope for service there was ample room. 
 Rev. William E. Merriman came to the presidency in the 
 autumn of 1863, and he brought with him a most notable 
 spirit of sacrifice and inspiration for "plain living and high 
 thinking." He exhorted with the power of great speech 
 indeed, but in the true spirt of the Homeric heroes he was 
 a file-leader at the front of the battle. It was a passion 
 with him to allure to brighter worlds, but he led the way. 
 He came to the presidency only on the condition that " the 
 college should be operated on its earnings, and that all 
 money raised, after paying the debts, should go to per- 
 manent enlargement." This seemed to put the teaching 
 force to a pretty severe testing, for the salaries, from the 
 nature of the case, could be only nominal. At the end of 
 the year the teachers took each his little share, and the 
 accounts were balanced. 
 
 How Mrs. Tracy met her responsibilities in conditions 
 like those of the sixties and early seventies would make 
 a fascinating story, if told in detail. It is to speak of 
 things obvious to say that she brought to her tasks a wiry 
 though slight physical frame; a rugged intelligence; a 
 determined though chastened will; a great moral enthusi- 
 asm, which underrun endeavors that would have been with- 
 out it vexatious or even appalling; a swift mastery of 
 detail, in which the main purpose was never lost; a sharp 
 exaction in service, yet tempered with charity towards the 
 untrained and the wayward; a love for her pupils, in which 
 self-interest was sunk out of sight ; and an enduring faith 
 in a Providence which ruled over college, church, and the 
 ways of her personal life. She knew how to teach, and in 
 her specialties, particularly in botany, she was full of
 
 56 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 knowledge, and she had a wise way of getting results from 
 her classes. She has been heard to say, that she did not 
 understand how any one could analyze a flower and ever 
 forget the analysis. Certainly she had a quite exhaustive 
 knowledge of our local flora. 
 
 But after all, in the early days she was greatest as the 
 head of the domestic department. The number of board- 
 ers averaged a hundred or more. To care for these well 
 would not, under usual circumstances, be regarded as a 
 serious task; but the circumstances were not usual. The 
 equipment was slender, and there were no trained helpers. 
 There was no money to provide labor-saving devices, 
 neither to pay for luxuries or trained workers. All of the 
 work was done by the students, and the head must supply 
 skill, system, and efficiency for the entire household. 
 
 It is easy to see that, in limitations such as these, con- 
 fusion, poor service, and pecuniary loss might become an 
 anticipated result. But nothing of the kind appeared, 
 but rather the precision in movement of a military camp, 
 and the exact economy of a thrifty enterprise. The duties 
 of the workers were definitely assigned, requiring careful 
 distributions in form of work and a time of doing it, and 
 a careless hand or a moment out of time was instantly 
 noted by the sharp mind which ordered all. Labor was 
 ever cheerful and thorough, and there resulted a margin 
 of profit which accrued to the advantage of the college in 
 the time of its extreme need. 
 
 A moral force, too, ran through all, for every worker 
 was rendering more than a hireling service; he or she was 
 made to feel that his toil was definite contribution toward 
 laying the foundations on which a future big with bless- 
 ings should be erected. Some of our best students never 
 could have completed their courses but for the service 
 which Mrs. Tracy's planning helped them to render; and
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 57 
 
 many a one has testified that the economy, skill, and spirit 
 of helpfulness, learned from the good lessons under the 
 wise leader of the domestic affairs, has been a very valu- 
 able part of the education which the college was able to offer. 
 We may well ask what other could have done for the col- 
 lege what Mrs. Tracy did in the pioneer days. President 
 Merriman regarded her work in these days as of equal im- 
 portance with his own; and many have thought that Mrs. 
 Tracy was providentially raised up, and, by training in 
 rugged toils and many sorrows, fitted for the conspicuous 
 place she was called upon to occupy. Her great unselfish- 
 ness, her love for her work rather than for its pecuniary 
 rewards or other emoluments, also her natural endow- 
 ments, permit us to surmise that, with great modesty 
 yet with firm conviction, she herself regarded herself as 
 one having been "called" to her work by the Divine Voice 
 whose intimations she ever loved to trace. E. H. M. 
 
 When I went to Ripon in 1865, just in time to take part 
 in a public meeting in honor of President Lincoln, imme- 
 diately following his -assassination, I found an unusually 
 able though small body of teachers in the college. Presi- 
 dent Merriman was one of the most incisive and instructive 
 men I ever met; Professor Merrell was wise and forceful; 
 Mrs. Merrell was an admirable teacher of the higher mathe- 
 matics; and Mrs. Tracy, whom years did not seem to 
 afflict, was as young and vigorous as the youngest, and 
 seemed perfectly competent to do anything required, 
 whether it be to teach the more ordinary English studies, 
 or to be the botanist of her territory, or to be the house- 
 mother of all of us. Her work went with no noise or 
 friction, and it was all thoroughly done. Were there a 
 severe case of sickness, she was trained nurse as well as 
 teacher and housekeeper.
 
 58 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 It was my business to teach the sciences as well as 
 Latin, but I knew that, much as I loved botany, Mrs. 
 Tracy knew the local flora better than I did, and that the 
 field and its flora belonged to her, and I was glad to go to 
 her for her knowledge of species and localities. 
 
 It was a great work she did. She continued in it with- 
 out flagging until advanced years sapped even her strength. 
 It had seemed as if that wiry frame and that temper would 
 defy years. But that God does not allow. Her purpose 
 was to fill up life to the limit with usefulness and to teach 
 the true Christian spirit to her pupils. They honored and 
 loved her, and so did we who were her associates. 
 
 William Hayes Ward. 
 
 The Independent, 130 Fulton Street, N. Y., 
 November 15, 1907. 
 
 Mrs. Tracy was one of the most remarkable women I 
 have ever known. Her leading characteristic next to 
 her marked intelligence, which all recognized seemed 
 to me to be integrity, with sincerity. No one who knew 
 her well could for a moment think, of her as capable of 
 insincerity, or as occupying an uncertain, misleading, or 
 "politic" position. The compass points to its pole no 
 more surely or faithfully than did Mrs. Tracy's mind turn 
 toward truth, righteousness, and justice. Her mental con- 
 ception of things and her conduct always kept step. 
 
 Another conspicuous characteristic that impressed me 
 as her consistency and poise, both in opinions and in 
 action. Her mind was well balanced; her conclusions 
 were not distorted by prejudice, pride, passion, or the 
 demands of conventionalities. Her views on a variety 
 of subjects would "square up" and fit into each other as 
 perfectly as those of any person I ever knew.
 
 MIDDLE COLLEGE IN THE SIXTIES
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 59 
 
 Persistency, or perseverance, was another of her marked 
 characteristics. The mental machinery that controlled 
 her daily conduct moved on as steadily and as firmly as 
 the wheels of a trusty clock; and the hours, or periods, 
 for special duties in her life rung out as promptly and as 
 clearly as the strokes of cathedral bells. Perhaps a clock 
 is a poor illustration of her perseverance. To the mind 
 of a physiologoist, her busy life suggested the behavior of 
 strong and healthy heart that beats firmly and regularly 
 from the birth until the death of its possessor. 
 
 Still another striking characteristic of Mrs. Tracy was 
 genuine faith, an abiding assurance that the things that 
 ought to be will be in due time, though the present evi- 
 dence be obscure to ordinary vision. She knew in whom 
 and in what she believed, and she could always give a 
 reason for the hope that was in her. Therefore she was 
 never buffeted or staggered by the winds of unreasonable 
 sentiment nor by the waves and tides of passing fashions 
 or cults. 
 
 Insight, which is akin to faith that is, an ability to 
 see things quickly, not only by observation, but by logical 
 processes, by induction or by deduction was conspic- 
 uous in her life. She perceived things so quickly and 
 so definitely that some people would call it instinct. 
 Others might think it a kind of clairvoyance; but it was, 
 in her case, the natural child of intelligence and integrity. 
 
 She was a better practical psychologist than are many 
 writers in that field of science. She understood human 
 nature as few people fathom it. She knew what boys and 
 girls are likely to think and do. She knew why they think 
 and act as is their custom. She always recognized the 
 fact that not until well advanced in years will human 
 beings cease "to do childish things." But she had no 
 use for silliness in adults.
 
 60 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 In the matter of college regulations and in cases of inves- 
 tigation and of discipline, she had a remarkable discerning 
 and judicial mind. In cases of discouragement or of fail- 
 ure on the part of students, and particularly in cases of 
 illness, she saw more of the factors entering into the diffi- 
 culty, and estimated their respective values more clearly 
 and in better proportion, than many professional physi- 
 cians in their study of their patients. She would have 
 made a remarkable physician or surgeon. 
 
 But she was a remarkable teacher instead, and also 
 an executive of high order. She was one of those charac- 
 ters whose memory we cherish with increasing apprecia- 
 tion. Her life, in the lives of those she influenced, a 
 beneficent and a multiplying force, goes on and on 
 through the passing centuries. Lyman B. Sperry. 
 
 Oberlin, Ohio, 
 
 December, 1907.
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 61 
 
 VI 
 
 MRS. TRACY AS I KNEW HER 
 
 "In all her religion, and in all her action of relation towards 
 God, she had a strange evenness and untroubled passage, sliding 
 toward her ocean of God and of infinity with a certain and silent 
 motion." Jeremy Taylor. 
 
 Mrs. Tracy's life, from 1871 on for several years, was the 
 regular, unvarying routine of the teacher, and the monoto- 
 nous round of the manager of the domestic affairs of the 
 college, diversified by an occasional visit to her old home 
 in the East, and frequent visits to ber beloved son, Dr. 
 James Horace Tracy, and family, at Escanaba, Michigan. 
 So quiet and uneventful was her life from an objective 
 point of view, that it would be like a "twice-told tale" 
 to recount it in detail. Written from the subjective side, 
 it would be teeming with interest, for her inner life was 
 one of remarkable richness and fullness, but we have not, 
 alas, the data for this. The few incidents of importance 
 were the death of her mother at Jackson, Pennsylvania, 
 April 5, 1871; that of her father at the ripe old age of 
 eighty-eight, February 17, 1882, at Jackson, Pennsylvania; 
 and hardest blow of all, the sudden death of her only son, 
 Dr. James Horace Tracy, December 6, 1891, at Escanaba, 
 Michigan. 
 
 Since my own acquaintance with Mrs. Tracy began in 
 1871, and continued in a warm and unbroken friendship 
 through the years of my college life, 1871-1877, and in most 
 intimate comradship from my marriage in 1880 down to the 
 day of her death, I have thought that the series of impres- 
 sions made upon my mind by contact with so marked a
 
 62 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 personality might convey a truer picture of this part of 
 her life than any dry narration of a few meager facts. 
 
 When I entered Ripon College in the fall of 1871, Mrs. 
 Tracy was then in the very prime of her powers. She was 
 a frequent visitor at the home of Professor and Mrs. Merrell, 
 where I boarded the first two years, but in my youth and 
 inexperience I fear I was more struck at first by her oddities 
 and idiosyncrasies than by her real worth. I was never 
 in any of her classes, except botany in the spring term of 
 1872. She was a bright and enthusiastic teacher in that, 
 and I enjoyed my term's work under her very much; 
 but with my music as an extra study, I had not time to 
 go very deeply into the analysis of flowers, her great 
 hobby, so while I made a good standing, I did not ingratiate 
 myself into her most .intimate circle. So great was her 
 passion for analyzing flowers, that she once told me that 
 she frequently caught herself analyzing the flowers on the 
 ladies' bonnets in church, and was only recalled to the 
 absurdity of what she was doing by finding so many 
 essential parts missing. But the patient investigation of 
 plants throughout the years bore fruit in March, 1889, in 
 the publication of a catalogue of "Plants Growing without 
 Cultivation in Ripon and the Near Vicinity." Mrs. 
 Tracy was assisted in the compilation of this pamphlet 
 by some of her students, and it is the fullest catalogue of 
 local flora up to date. Every plant was gathered by 
 herself, or seen in a fresh condition, and verified by reference 
 to Gray's and Wood's botanies, and the ferns by reference 
 to Eaton's " Ferns of North America." In case of doubtful 
 specimens, she even took pains to correspond with the 
 authors of the aforesaid books. 
 
 In the wonderful season of revivals, which continued 
 through the six years of my stay at college, I learned to 
 have the deepest respect and admiration for Mrs. Tracy's
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 63 
 
 strong Christian character. These revivals were under 
 the able and spiritual leadership of the Rev. L. J. White, 
 pastor of the Ripon Congregational Church, assisted by 
 different well-known evangelists. Mrs. Tracy and other 
 members of the faculty ably seconded Mr. White in his 
 endeavors. The Tuesday evening college prayer meeting 
 was made a powerful ally to the church militant, and many 
 students were converted. The revivals were not times of 
 mere emotional excitement, but deep, quiet, and rich in 
 results. The Holy Spirit was manifest in great power, 
 and the Word was expounded from pulpit and college 
 rostrum with such clearness and persuasive force that 
 constant additions of those who were saved were made 
 to the churches. At one communion, seventy-five joined 
 the Congregational Church, fully fifty on profession of faith. 
 
 Mrs. Tracy was at this time matron of the domestic 
 department, and was teaching her full quota of studies, 
 Algebra, Arithmetic, English Literature, Composition, and 
 Botany; but though the duties were many and arduous, 
 she seemed always to have "all the time there was" for 
 helping individual students with their lessons, or with 
 perplexities of any kind, or soul problems. Then she was 
 always at her post at the college and church prayer meetings, 
 at the church services, both the extra and the usual ones. 
 I never knew her to have even a headache or indisposition 
 of any kind during those years, though she frequently 
 arose at four o'clock in the morning to get her bakings for 
 her large family done. 
 
 Those of us who were privileged to hear her remarkable 
 testimonies and prayers during the revival meetings re- 
 ceived indelible impressions of faith, childlike trust, and 
 confident, triumphant hope in the eternal verities, which 
 helped to make the way plainer to many of us. And 
 numerous letters from old students testify abundantly to
 
 64 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 the power of her personality upon theirs, and the help some 
 timely word of hers was to them in time of need. 
 
 It was in these earlier years that I was associated with 
 Mrs. Tracy, Mrs. Julia Hosford Merrell, and other ladies, 
 in a movement that swept over the entire country in the 
 early seventies, the Woman's Temperance Crusade against 
 the saloons. The ladies met together at the house of one 
 of their members for prayer, and then with their Bibles in 
 their hands marched down and stood in front of one 
 saloon after another and held a brief meeting before each. 
 There was Scripture reading, singing, and much praying, 
 whether any exhortations I do not now recall. I was 
 one of the young lady students who helped about the 
 singing, and I can remember how strange it seemed to me 
 to be doing such an unconventional thing. But the 
 prayers that were offered by these godly women down on 
 their knees on the dirty sidewalk, their absolute sincerity 
 and tremendous earnestness made a profound impression. 
 There was always a great crowd gathered, of course, as the 
 meetings were in progress, but we were never subjected to 
 the slightest rudeness on the part of the saloon-keepers, or 
 by the crowd. I remember the interested but somewhat 
 defiant attitude of one Harry De Vere, a saloon-keeper, 
 a man of magnificent physique, who looked like a lord 
 fallen from some high estate. Mrs. Tracy, slight, erect, 
 with arms folded under the heavy gray blanket shawl 
 which she wore so many years, and head surmounted by 
 the plain black velvet bonnet tied with a black ribbon bow 
 under the chin, was quite a contrast in her plain attire to 
 Harry's somewhat flashy elegance, but there was a solemn 
 intensity in her eye that made her not unlike some prophetic 
 sybil. Harry De Vere shortly after left Ripon, and later 
 changed his business, whether due to the influence of the 
 crusade, it would be hard to say, but He who marketh the
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 65 
 
 sparrow's fall, and putteth the tears of the widows and 
 orphans into His bottle, surely heeded those earnest prayers, 
 and answered them, though in ways unknown to us. 
 
 In 1874 I entered Middle College, and for three college 
 years it was my home. Now, for the first time, I really 
 knew Mrs. Tracy. Her abrupt ways and sharp voice at 
 first rather disconcerted me, and just at first I was a little 
 bit afraid of her; but no one could live long in the same 
 building with her without finding out how really kind and 
 good she was. I soon penetrated the outer crust of man- 
 nerism, and learned to love her dearly, and to thoroughly 
 enjoy these very mannerisms. 
 
 For a time she was obliged to assume the duties of 
 preceptress along with all her other duties, and the masterly 
 way in which she handled all these complex and some- 
 times conflicting responsibilities was something to remem- 
 ber. Upon assuming this extra responsibility, she called 
 the girls all together in the old sitting-room of the Middle 
 College, and gave us a short talk upon our responsibilities 
 and threw us upon our honor. Like Dr. Arnold of Rugby, 
 she had large faith in the goodness of human nature, and 
 trusting us, found us worthy of trust. In those days 
 there were numerous and very strict regulations; but the 
 order and conscientious keeping of rules while Mrs. Tracy 
 had charge was well-nigh perfect. She never went around 
 spying upon the girls, listening at keyholes, and snooping 
 around in the halls, when she thought they were going to 
 have a good time on the sly, consequently the girls vied 
 with one another in maintaining a quiet and orderly house, 
 and took pride in meeting her expectations. 
 
 Neither was she afraid to join in our fun. One time, 
 when all were in the sitting-room laughing and making 
 merry, as girls will, and had perhaps become a little hilar- 
 ious, she came into the room in her abstracted way, to see
 
 66 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 whether all was as it should be. One of the girls had sat 
 down at the piano and started the chorus of a rollicking, 
 laughing song. The jolly "ha-ha-ha" had been so seem- 
 ingly spontaneous and so contagious, that the girls were 
 in the full swing of the chorus, and many in helpless gales 
 of laughter, as Mrs. Tracy entered. Cachinations in all 
 keys and of all kinds and conditions of tones rilled the 
 air. She stood surveying the scene for a moment, waiting 
 for the uproar to cease, then herself was caught by the con- 
 tagion, and laughing heartily with us, hastily retired from 
 the scene without comment. 
 
 She was equal to any occasion. Another time, some 
 naughty boys put a barrel of fire-crackers at the head of 
 the stairs in Middle College. They had the fuse so ar- 
 ranged that the explosion should take place about nine 
 o'clock in the evening, when the young ladies were deep 
 in their studies, or getting ready to retire. The fusillade 
 in the quiet of the evening hour and in the echoing walls of 
 the long hall was something terrific. Many of us thought 
 that the building was about to fall about our ears, so we 
 rushed out into the hall. Mrs. Tracy was there, quiet, 
 calm, cool, and collected, though, like all the rest, a bit 
 disheveled in appearance. One young lady was so fright- 
 ened that she went into hysterics and crawled clear under 
 her bed, crying, "Come on, girls, the devil is out in the hall 
 flapping his wings. He'll get you, sure." But Mrs. 
 Tracy was equal even to this, and helped us to calm "poor 
 little Nell," and by ten o'clock the whole house was serene 
 and quiet. 
 
 On another occasion, she taught a number of us a most 
 salutary lesson. The girls were wont to gather in my room 
 at the twilight hour for music, as I had my own piano. 
 On the floor, in the deep window-seats, in chairs, on the 
 table even, they would pile around and call for music.
 
 O 
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 67 
 
 One particular night we were so engaged, when somebody 
 discovered that the fire was out. I volunteered to inter- 
 view Mrs. Tracy and beg for coals from her fine glowing 
 base-burner. But I reckoned without my host. Mrs. 
 Tracy was sitting beside her warm fire, toasting her feet, 
 and working a problem in algebra, and to my proffered 
 request gave a decisive and abrupt negative. As I turned 
 with the empty fire-pan in my hand and started to leave, 
 she arose, and said in her incisive way, "Wait a minute. 
 I'll go show you how to build a fire, then you won't have 
 to use a fire-pan again." So we went back to my room. 
 If Mrs. Tracy was surprised to see such a roomful of girls, 
 she did not show it, but calmly went to work, and then and 
 there gave such an object-lesson in the art of fire-building 
 as few of us ever forgot. There was muffled mirth and 
 subdued giggling at my expense and at Mrs. Tracy's 
 various orders "A wisp of paper; a sliver of kindling; 
 some nice dry sticks; now apply your match" but if any 
 of us thereafter were tempted to take a short cut to a 
 desired end at the expense of a neighbor, or to do a thing 
 in the laziest way, we would recall Mrs. Tracy's terse dic- 
 tum, "The quickest way to have a good fire is to build it 
 yourself." 
 
 Mrs. Tracy was the soul of punctuality, and doubtless 
 this very habit of being exactly on time in everything 
 enabled her to accomplish so much. Our hours were all 
 strictly marked off. The rising bell rang at 5:30 o'clock, 
 a. m., and we were expected to be on time at the early 
 breakfast at 6:30.* Five minutes of grace were allowed 
 for the assembling of the large number of boarders. Mrs. 
 Tracy always stood, erect and vigilant, at her place at the 
 central table, for exactly five minutes by the clock; then 
 bowing her head, she uttered a brief but perfectly audible 
 
 * These hours were afterwards changed to later ones.
 
 68 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 blessing, or bade some professor do it, and then all sat 
 down. 
 
 Now, in those days we had wood stoves in our rooms, 
 and frequently our fires would be out by morning, so that 
 it took all the grace and grit a girl possessed, and some- 
 times more, to leave her warm nest and get up and dress 
 in the stinging cold, but fortunately it was before the days 
 of the shirt-waist buttoning in the back. Gay-flowered 
 wrappers, made a la princesse, with lace at neck and sleeve, 
 and immense buttons up and down the front, were then in 
 the fashion, and we were allowed to wear these to break- 
 fast. So frequently in that five minutes of grace, a string 
 of girls might be seen, a highly amusing spectacle, rushing 
 down the narrow stairway, fastening the last button just as 
 they reached the dining-room door with its glass window. 
 If all were standing, they would enter and flutter to their 
 places, with Mrs. Tracy's eye upon them. If too late, they 
 preferred to forage for breakfast some other way, or go 
 without rather than run the gauntlet of that piercing 
 glance. After breakfast, all remained seated, while Mrs. 
 Tracy or some of the professors led in family prayers. 
 There were Scripture reading, prayer, and a stanza or 
 two of a hymn, then all dispersed and the real business of 
 the day began. 
 
 Though a strict disciplinarian and of a dignity that de- 
 manded respect and obedience, Mrs. Tracy was also most 
 motherly and approachable, and especially if you were sick 
 or in trouble. She was always mothering somebody, and 
 no picture at this time would be complete without the 
 companion picture of Alice Constance Adams, who for 
 years was Mrs. Tracy's good right hand. Through the 
 strenuous years of this part of Mrs. Tracy's life, Alice was 
 the devoted, untiring, ministering spirit. Efficient, un- 
 selfish, quick as a flash, her thoughtful affection and care
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 69 
 
 surely was no small factor in helping Mrs. Tracy to conserve 
 her forces. To Mrs. Tracy, Alice was like an own daughter, 
 and she took great pride in her education, helping her 
 through college as she did others. 
 
 In the summer of 1881, Alice accompanied Mrs. Tracy 
 on a long and delightful trip to the East. Mrs. Tracy 
 wrote characteristic and very interesting letters home to 
 the Ripon Press.* They visited Macnsfield, Ohio; Wind- 
 sor, New York; Scranton, Honesdale, and Jackson, Penn- 
 sylvania; New York City, Albany, and Clifton Springs, 
 New York; and after a brief stay at Niagara Falls, came 
 home by the way of the Lakes from Detroit, Michigan. In 
 June, 1884, Alice was married to Mr. William F. Meyer, 
 in the parlor of old Middle College, and it is pleasant to 
 recall Mrs. Tracy's happy and beaming face, as, hostess 
 of the occasion, she dispensed delightful hospitality. 
 
 While Mrs. Tracy cared for intellectual things, yet she 
 took pride in her culinary skill, and it certainly was great, 
 as any one of her old boys or girls could testify. Our food 
 in the college was uniformly good and abundant, well 
 cooked and well served. At Thanksgiving and on Christ- 
 mas Day, before the time of Yuletide vacations, most ele- 
 gant dinners were served in the old dining-hall to faculty 
 and students, and these were times of great merry-making. 
 After the bounteous dinner of turkey, done to a turn, and 
 vegetables galore, and chicken pie, all piping hot under 
 Mrs. Tracy's vigilant superintendence, topped off with 
 mince and pumpkin pies, for which she was justly famous, 
 we adjourned to the parlor and sitting-room and played 
 games. Mrs. Tracy joined in these with the utmost zest, 
 and to the last of her life had this healthy normal appetite 
 for play. 
 
 * Time and space forbid our giving any quotations from these letters, save 
 the one about the Mormon leader, Joseph Smith, which is given in the Appendix.
 
 70 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 At Commencement time she was in her glory, engineer- 
 ing the delightful collations which were held between 
 Middle and West colleges, or on rainy days in the old 
 dining-hall. The regular family, varying from one hundred 
 to one hundred and seventy-five, had to be provided for, 
 also many of the fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, cousins, 
 uncles, and aunts of the students, or other guests of the 
 college, for the college exercised "hospitality without 
 grudging" through all those years. How she managed, 
 I do not know, but certainly she did not once absent 
 herself from any of the Commencement exercises on ac- 
 count of her manifold duties, and everything in dining- 
 room and kitchen went like clockwork, and the collation, 
 without a hitch. As the invitation to the collation was 
 very general, there were ofttimes two hundred people 
 served. In order to prepare for these gala occasions, Mrs. 
 Tracy arose at four in the morning and got the cakes and 
 other things ready. Then she sat down with the guests and 
 enjoyed herself with the rest. Had she not had a most 
 faithful and capable co-worker in Mr. P. S. Collins (for 
 thirty years janitor in Ripon College), she could hardly 
 have been so at her ease. 
 
 When I returned to Ripon in the fall of 1880, as the wife 
 of President E. H. Merrell, Mrs. Tracy's beloved friend and 
 comrade of many years, she received me at once into her 
 most intimate circle. It was a delightful privilege to 
 know her in close personal intimacy, but it is not possible 
 to put down in cold print all that she was to me and mine 
 through the years, without touching upon things that would 
 be altogether too personal and sacred for the general public. 
 Sufficient to say, that I ever found her a wise counselor, 
 an ideal friend, loving, thoughtful, and always ready to 
 share both sorrow and joy. She came and went in our 
 home as if we were her own kith and kin, and as the children
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 71 
 
 came, she took the greatest interest in them, and they 
 loved her as dearly as if she had been really their grand- 
 mother. What she was to us she was to a large circle of 
 intimate friends in Ripon: the two families of Thompsons, 
 the Uphams, the Everhards, the Scribners, the Harrises, 
 the Duffies, the Harwoods, the Meyers, and many others. 
 She was wont to drop into their homes also in a perfectly 
 informal and delightfully familiar way for dinner or tea, 
 and make herself perfectly at home and always welcome. 
 In times of sickness or domestic stress, what a host she 
 was then ! She would not wait to be sent for, but seemed 
 to scent our trouble from afar, and hastened to the rescue. 
 She would come in, and without asking what there was to 
 do, quietly see for herself what there was to be done and 
 then do it, whether it was bread-making, or bathing the 
 brow, or even the feet of the restless patient, tossing and 
 burning in all the discomfort of a high fever. On one 
 occasion, even, I remember how she insisted on making 
 a batch of cookies for the children, when both the cook 
 and I were disabled. She was ready to bestow even the 
 not strictly necessary service, if thereby she could give 
 pleasure or heart's ease. 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF MRS. TRACY 
 
 I went to Ripon College in the autumn of 1864. One of 
 my first studies was preparatory Latin. The department 
 was then in the hands of Mrs. Tracy. My first acquaint- 
 ance with her, then, was in the class-room. I can recall 
 every feature of her keen face, and the penetrating tones of 
 her voice. She was the most exacting teacher I ever met. 
 
 I had studied a little Latin in a public school, and had 
 some facility in translation; but with no groundwork. I 
 can now hear, as I write, Mrs. Tracy's voice as she said,
 
 72 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 after a fair attempt at reading and a poor one at grammar, 
 "Holt, I don't see how you can translate so well and know 
 so little." 
 
 Her drill in grammar was most painstaking and thor- 
 ough. After a lapse of almost half a century, thanks to 
 Mrs. Tracy, I can repeat the twenty-six prepositions which 
 govern the accusative, without a slip. When later our 
 class passed into the hands of Professor William Hayes 
 Ward, we knew Latin grammar, and were ready to be 
 pushed to the limit by that splendid scholar. 
 
 After I became an inmate of the Middle College, my 
 relations with Mrs. Tracy became closer. I had to work 
 for some of my college expenses, and Dr. Merrell turned 
 me over to Mrs. Tracy, who had charge of the culinary 
 department. I did the marketing under her direction, and 
 learned the routine of "roast beef, boiled beef, and meat 
 pie." It was also one of my duties to keep track of the 
 disposal of the meats among the tables, so that the coveted 
 "meat pies" got to the proper table in rotation. This 
 gave me a chance to see her "rob the roast." She did it 
 well, as Ida Morley, Emma Ferguson, and other girls who 
 "helped" in the kitchen can testify. 
 
 I was also much impressed with the genial side of Mrs. 
 Tracy's life, when she could relax from the stern task of 
 disciplinarian over a bevy of as eager, wholesome, active 
 girls as ever vexed a martinet. A gracious smile took the 
 place of the wrinkles of discipline, and she was a very 
 enjoyable companion and friend. 
 
 Another thing about her was her absolute fairness. I 
 recall in one examination she had made a mistake in mark- 
 ing. It was in my own case. Her attention was called 
 to it, and without hesitation she made the necessary cor- 
 rection, recalling that the examination had been better than 
 her mark indicated.
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 73 
 
 Her simple, unaffected piety was remarkable. She 
 was strict, she was severe often; but when she spoke 
 simply, womanly, in the prayer circle, we knew the words 
 came from a heart surrendered to Jesus Christ her Lord. 
 
 I owe much to Mrs. Tracy, and I gratefully make 
 acknowledgment of the debt. 
 
 W. S. Holt, 1870.* 
 
 I am having my freshman rhetoric class write descrip- 
 tions of "mental states" just now, and they do not always 
 seem to remember ever having had any; and yet how vivid 
 even now is mine of that moment in the algebra class when 
 I was surreptitiously imparting a most important bit of 
 news to Mr. MacNeill, when suddenly I became conscious 
 that the whole atmosphere was heavy with silence, and 
 glanced up to find myself pinioned by Mrs. Tracy's eyes, 
 so full of mingled sternness, disgust, and amusement. 
 
 Do you remember our delight when rumor reached us 
 that a rabid exponent of woman's rights had asked Mrs. 
 Tracy if she did not often feel put down, sat upon, etc., 
 because she was a mere woman, and Mrs. Tracy, in her 
 characteristic manner, had promptly responded, "Well, no, 
 I never noticed it." The idea of any one's trying to "sit 
 down" upon Mrs. Tracy filled us with unspeakable delight. 
 
 What a tower of strength she was if things were going 
 wrong anywhere! How quick to make us feel that life was 
 duty and privilege! Another mental picture I retain of 
 her is among a stream of us coming out from some service 
 from the church, where pleased comment was being made 
 on the recent conversion of one of our number. Her face 
 was full of pleasure, but her only words of comment were, 
 
 * Mr. Holt is now Field Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Home Mis- 
 sions for the Pacific Coast, and works in Alaska, Washington, North Idaho, 
 Oregon, California, and Nevada, a good-sized field.
 
 74 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 "This will mean better lessons, too." Truly her memory 
 is a rich legacy to us all. 
 
 Caroline W. Daniels, 1882. 
 Drury College, Springfield, Mo. 
 College Days, January, 1906. 
 
 How well I remember an afternoon twenty-two years 
 ago, during my first term at Ripon! Mrs. Tracy found the 
 house where I was rooming and spent half an hour visiting 
 with me. She seemed to know that I was timid and lonely 
 and needed a little friendship. I hope she knows how 
 much good it did me, and how I've loved her ever since. 
 
 Arthur E. Leonard, 1891. 
 Congregational Church, 
 Columbus, Wis. 
 
 Mrs. Tracy was a sincere Christian, that was as un- 
 doubted as her ability to teach algebra or botany. She 
 disliked affectation, and never lacked the courage to re- 
 prove it. One day at her table, in the dining-room, some 
 young ladies were speaking about the pump that was run 
 by the windmill, back of the Middle building, and the old 
 tin cup that we all drank out of in the good old days, when 
 the microbe was an unknown quantity. One young lady 
 said, "I never drink out of that tin cup. I always take a 
 glass with me when I go to the pump." Mrs. Tracy looked 
 
 up and said, "Miss , there are lots of nicer girls than 
 
 you that have drunk out of that cup." 
 
 Mrs. Tracy was a strict Sabbatarian. One time in the 
 botany class she told about a young minister who drove 
 over to Dartford to preach one Sunday, and on his way 
 back he picked by the roadside a flower that was new to 
 him, and the same afternoon brought it to her to find out
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 75 
 
 what it was. What happened she didn't say. The story 
 stopped there, but she smiled, and we inferred that the 
 young minister never came to her again for information in 
 regard to botany on Sunday. 
 
 Ripon College was indeed fortunate to have at its start 
 Mrs. Tracy as a member of the faculty and matron of the 
 young ladies. A noble character, a good teacher, a strict 
 disciplinarian, an able administrator, a faithful friend, and 
 let us not forget she also was a good mother. May Ripon 
 College never lack teachers and students to carry on the 
 good work Mrs. Tracy began, is the wish of 
 
 Yours truly, 
 Flushing, New York, E. P. Martin. 
 
 November 20, 1907. 
 
 Mrs. Tracy read the poem that follows at one of the 
 Ripon College Commencements: 
 
 MY DEAR OLD BOYS AND GIRLS 
 
 My dear old boys and girls of yore, 
 I 'm with you at your feast to-night ; 
 
 I've known and loved you all before, 
 And claim this privilege my right. 
 
 Though flesh from you be sundered far. 
 
 The willing spirit, swift of wing, 
 Shall fly and push your doors ajar, 
 
 And with you talk and laugh and sing. 
 
 Sweet memories of golden hours 
 Come trooping in while we are here, 
 
 And paint for us the woodland flowers, 
 Which gave to us such joy and cheer. 
 
 The Campus over which we walked, 
 In thoughtful mood, or blithe or gay, 
 
 As of our hopes and plans we talked, 
 Looms up as in the olden day.
 
 76 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 Mem'ry shall paint, with magic skill, 
 The scenes which we all love so well ; 
 
 Their view with joy each heart shall thrill, 
 And some long secret tales shall tell. 
 
 The student's weekly hour for prayer, 
 In the old Chapel or the new, 
 
 Whose blessed power we still may share, 
 To keep us good and pure and true. 
 
 And the old class-rooms where we met, 
 With students dull and students bright; 
 
 Those days we never can forget 
 Till earthly things are lost to sight. 
 
 The room where we, in merry mood, 
 Gathered at morning, noon, and night, 
 
 To take our simple, daily food, 
 
 Just now comes plainly to our sight. 
 
 I cannot longer with you stay, 
 
 For soon I take my homeward flight, 
 
 But I will ever for you pray; 
 
 God bless us one and all, Good-night.
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 77 
 
 VII 
 
 IN HER DECLINING YEARS 
 
 "But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth 
 more and more unto the perfect day." Proverbs iv. 18. 
 
 Through the eighties, Mrs. Tracy continued at her post. 
 She was still nominal head of the domestic department, 
 though since some time in the seventies there had been a 
 matron, to see to the kitchen and dining-room, and to 
 relieve Mrs. Tracy of the brunt of the cares there. 
 
 So the even tenor of her life ran on, and then suddenly, 
 like a clap of thunder out of a clear sky, the bolt fell. 
 Sunday, December 6, 1891, a telegram came to Mr. Mer- 
 rell from Mrs. Horace Tracy, announcing the death of her 
 husband that morning. Mr. Merrell had gone out in the 
 country to preach, so messengers were sent to have him 
 come home early in the afternoon to break the news to 
 Mrs. Tracy. I went over and went to church and Sunday- 
 school with her, and stayed to dinner with her, and until 
 Mr. Merrell came. She did not suspect anything from my 
 doing so, as I was accustomed to visit her in this familiar 
 way. When Mr. Merrell broke the news to her she said 
 simply, as she knelt, "Pray." Though she kept up with 
 marvelous fortitude, she broke perceptibly from that 
 time on, and was never quite the same afterwards. She 
 went down to supper as usual that Sunday, saying that 
 she would rather do just as she was accustomed to do, if 
 it would not make the students feel badly to have her come 
 down. Mr. Merrell accompanied her to Escanaba to pay 
 the last sad rites, and friends meeting them at the depot
 
 78 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 said, "All Escanaba is in mourning." Mrs. Tracy's self- 
 control through all the trying ordeal was a wonder, even 
 to those who knew her best. 
 
 On her return to college, she resumed her work as usual, 
 and to the casual glance all was as it was before. But 
 those who knew her best knew that the very springs of her 
 life had been sapped. It was months before she could 
 even speak her beloved son's name, and then but rarely; 
 and she told me a long, long time afterwards, that for 
 months she never slept until after three or four o'clock in 
 the morning, and she could not weep for a long time. 
 Only divine grace sustained her. I was with her almost 
 daily for weeks and weeks after her bereavement, and I 
 always found her cheerful, interested in college and cur- 
 rent events, ready to chat, bravely and unselfishly putting 
 her own heartache in the background. Her calmness and 
 serenity might to some seem like stoicism, but it was the 
 outcome of a lifetime of trust. She had learned 
 
 "In hours of faith, 
 That life is ever Lord of Death, 
 And love can never lose its own!" 
 
 In regard to a little incident that occurred the first 
 lonely Christmas after her son's death, Mrs. Tracy wrote 
 the following little story and sent it to the Advance for 
 the Children's Department. 
 
 "I wonder if any one has a prettier Christmas story to tell than 
 I have? I will give it; then you will know. On Christmas morn- 
 ing about ten o'clock, a lady was sitting alone in her room, thinking 
 of the Christmas days of long ago, when her own dear children were 
 so full of glee, and her own heart was light and glad; then of the 
 great change, her children gone, no more to greet her on earth. 
 
 "Just then the sound of little feet treading softly was heard in 
 the hall outside of the door, and little voices sang a sweet Christ- 
 mas hymn. When they finished, there was a light tap on the door.
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 79 
 
 Being bidden to come in, four girls and one little boy came in, and 
 each gave the lonely lady a kiss and a little Christmas present. So 
 her heart was made light, and she said, '.God bless the dear children, 
 who try to give to sorrowing ones some of the love and comfort 
 which the Christ child brought.' " 
 
 Not long after, Mrs. Tracy bought the little home on 
 Ransom Street, Ripon, and there passed her last days. In 
 the fall of 1893, she took formal possession, and moved in her 
 household goods. Mrs. Horace Tracy and children spent 
 different seasons with her, much to her delight; but Mrs. 
 Horace Tracy's delicate health made it impossible for her 
 to brave the rigors of our Wisconsin winters, and take up 
 her permanent home here. She and her two daughters 
 spent a year abroad, and thereafter made Mrs. Tracy 
 frequent long visits through the years. 
 
 For a long time after giving up the more strenuous 
 duties of head of the domestic department of Ripon Col- 
 lege, Mrs. Tracy superintended Dawes Cottage. A num- 
 ber of young ladies, who wished to reduce college expenses 
 to a minimum, tried the experiment of co-operative 
 housekeeping at Dawes Cottage with great success. Mrs. 
 Tracy's counsel and help were invaluable to the young 
 people, but as old age encroached upon her energies, she 
 in time gave up even these slight duties, and found scope 
 enough for her talents within her own four walls. The 
 little home on Ransom Street became the center of a most 
 delightful social life, for Mrs. Tracy delighted in enter- 
 taining and in being entertained. The old students always 
 sought her out and called upon her, and many were urged 
 to remain as guests. For several years Mrs. Tracy had 
 students to help her in the home, and thereby helped them 
 too, by giving board and lodging in payment for service. 
 But as the years went on, it became necessary for her to 
 have a regular maid, and Bertha Achtenberg was secured,
 
 80 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 who rendered faithful, efficient, and loving service through 
 the last few years of Mrs. Tracy's life. The wisdom, tact, 
 and consideration which Mrs. Tracy showed those who 
 served her was fully reciprocated by a loving personal 
 loyalty on their part. 
 
 In 1894, the faculty and students of Ripon College 
 tendered Mrs. Tracy a reception in honor of her thirty-five 
 years of continuous service with the college. This was 
 held in the parlors of the Congregational Church, and was 
 a very large and elegant affair. Most delightful letters 
 were received from former teachers and students, full of 
 expressions of good will and personal affection. A beau- 
 tiful glass china-cupboard, a handsome lounge, a large 
 picture, a fine lamp, and a purse full of gold pieces (as 
 many as she had taught years), were given Mrs. Tracy, 
 much to her surprise. 
 
 In 1898, Mrs. Tracy told me that her birthday was 
 November 12th, and that, as she would then be eighty 
 years old, she would like to celebrate it in some way. She 
 said that she had purposely refrained throughout the 
 years from letting anybody know her birthday, because 
 she knew the students would celebrate it or give her pres- 
 ents, which she thought they could ill afford. So no one 
 had known her birthday except Mr. Merrell, and he had 
 forgotten it. But now she wished to celebrate so impor- 
 tant an occasion as the attainment of her fourscore years. 
 
 The faculty, ladies, and others of Mrs. Tracy's friends 
 took the matter up and gave her a celebration at her own 
 home that delighted her heart. And thereafter every birth- 
 day, up to the last, was celebrated in some delightful way, 
 either at her own home or elsewhere. 
 
 At Commencement time no one was more honored than 
 Mrs. Tracy. For many years she either made a speech 
 or read a poem in reply to her name. Among her papers
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 81 
 
 was found a copy of a speech which she must have made 
 in 1890. It is a characteristic one, but there is space for 
 only the final part of it: 
 
 "Miss Sill used to say that she was married to Rockford Seminary 
 I think, in some similar sense, I have been married to Ripon College 
 Certainly we have lived together for thirty-one years, and numer- 
 ous children have come to us, and I trust most of them have gone 
 out from it with an abiding influence for good. Certainly many are 
 doing good service for the Master in this land and in other lands. 
 I have even attained to the dignity of grandmother, as eight or ten 
 of the grandchildren have come here for nurture during the past 
 two or three years. I would not intimate that my influence for 
 good has been all that they have received here, only the smallest 
 part of it. But it has always been a joy to me to know that my 
 children, and now my grandchildren, are walking in the truth, and 
 I thank God that he has given me the privilege of such work." 
 
 Mrs. Tracy's health through all her life was remarkable 
 for one of so slight a physical frame. She had only one 
 serious illness in all the years of her life, and that was due 
 to an attack of the grippe in 1900. She was careful to 
 obey the laws of hygiene, and treated her body with the 
 utmost respect, even when alone having her meals pre- 
 pared with the utmost care and regularity. 
 
 It was her custom in the winter time to eat mince pies 
 for breakfast and dinner, because they were not only 
 toothsome, but nutritious, and more palatable than meat 
 cooked in other ways. This was a matter of astonish- 
 ment to her friends; but she certainly suffered no ill effects 
 from such a diet. She had reduced religious therapeutics 
 to a science, and needed no outside cult to teach her the 
 art of keeping well. Christ Redeemer, Healer, Friend 
 was sufficient for her, and the evenness and steadiness of 
 her physical health was due, in a large measure, to the 
 serenity and soundness of her spiritual life, hid with 
 Christ in God. She never worried over anything, and her
 
 82 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 constant habit of carrying everything to a personal God 
 in prayer was a large factor in maintaining both soundness 
 of mind and health of body. She believed in God's prom- 
 ises, and accepted them with the simplicity of a child, and 
 so she was carried "even to hoar hairs," by the Living 
 God. Such lives might well be taken as ringing calls to 
 orthodox Christianity to reaffirm that it has everything 
 of healing requisite for the health of body, soul, and mind 
 that new cults claim, and the infinite fullness of Christian 
 truth in addition. 
 
 One of the supreme tests of character is the way in 
 which we grow old. Mrs. Tracy met this test beautifully, 
 and while it was sad to her friends to see the ravages time 
 made, yet it was also beautiful to note how the spirit mel- 
 lowed and ripened. She kept up her interest in the Edu- 
 cational Club and the a W. C. T. U. almost to the last, and 
 her devotion to the cause which she loved most of all, 
 missions, never knew abatement. Her life was almost 
 synchronous with the past wonderful century of missions. 
 Familiar from childhood with all the history of the Ameri- 
 can Board, she early imbibed that passion for souls, and 
 sense of personal responsibility for the furtherance of God's 
 plans for the salvation of the heathen, which were the 
 most vital concerns of her life. She knew the mission- 
 aries of our Board by name and many of them personally. 
 She prayed for them individually and daily. She gave 
 generously out of her small means, counting it of no 
 moment to deny herself for the work. 
 
 Eager to have some one go to the annual meeting of the 
 W. B. M. I. at Oak Park, in October, 1905, she, as usual, 
 headed the list with her subscription towards the expense 
 of our delegates. Though stricken with mortal illness, 
 she had the last missonary meeting of our local auxiliary 
 at her home, just the Wednesday before she died. It
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 8S 
 
 seemed in the nature of a last sacrament, and none of those 
 present will ever forget the radiance of her face as she 
 eagerly listened to the joyous news of God's generous 
 answer to the prayers from our women of the Interior in 
 giving more than the $100,000 needed for the work abroad. 
 In a book which she handed to our solicitor was found, 
 after her death, the following words, the last she ever 
 wrote : 
 
 "My dear Sisters: Our purpose is to have the name of every 
 lady member of our church on the list of our contributors to our 
 missionary society. It is the plan being adopted by many of our 
 churches, and we hope soon will be by all. Please do not hesitate 
 to give a small pledge if you cannot do more, but lay aside a little 
 at a time, and you will be astonished to see how the sum will grow. 
 Remember to accompany your gift with prayer. May God bless 
 you all." C. T. T. 
 
 Premonitions of the end came some weeks before her 
 death, and her daughter-in-law and granddaughter, Mrs. 
 Osborn, were summoned from the East. On their coming, 
 she seemed for a time almost well, but it was the last fitful 
 flickering of a light that was almost out. She was able to 
 be up and dressed every day, but Saturday afternoon, 
 November 11th, she sank into a stupor, and quietly 
 breathed her last the following Monday, November 13th, 
 at noon. 
 
 Mrs. Tracy had often told me of the triumphant deaths 
 of relatives of hers, and I wondered whether she, too, would 
 see visions such as they had seen, but if she had any, she 
 did not, or could not, impart them to us. Mr. Merrell 
 offered a brief prayer by her side Sunday afternoon. I 
 knelt with him. She held a hand of each of us as he prayed, 
 and the answering pressure of her hand seemed to indicate 
 that she knew us and understood, and when we said good- 
 bye, she nodded her head and tried to say something, but
 
 84 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 the power of speech was gone. The eyes seemed to be 
 turned inward, the soul wrapped in mysterious but majestic 
 solitude, and so her spirit took its flight back to its Maker 
 in silence, but not, we trust, in loneliness, for our Heavenly 
 Father hath promised His children that He will be their 
 "Guide, even unto death." 
 
 AN EPITAPH 
 
 No stone as yet marks Mrs. Tracy's last resting-place; 
 but we trust a monument will soon be placed over her 
 grave. On this she wished inscribed simply, "A Teacher 
 in Ripon College," with her name and the dates of her 
 birth and death, and a brief text of Scripture. 
 
 Had we been allowed to write an epitaph, no more 
 beautiful or fitting one could have been found than the 
 touching one inscribed to his beloved wife by Sir Thomas 
 Lucy, on her tomb in the quaint old church in Charlecote 
 Park, near Stratford on the Avon: 
 
 "All the time of her Lyfe a true and faithfull servant 
 of her God; never detected of any crime, or vice; in re- 
 ligion most sound; in love to her husband most faithfull 
 and true. In friendship, most constant. To what in 
 trust was committed unto her most secret; in wisdom 
 excelling; in governing her House and bringing up of 
 Youth in the feare of God that did converse with her 
 most rare and singular; a great maintainer of hospitality; 
 greatly esteemed of her betters; misliked of none unless 
 the envious. When all is spoken that can be said, a 
 Woman so furnished and garnished with Virtue as not to 
 be bettered, and hardly to be equalled of any; as she 
 lived most virtuously, so she dyed most godly. Set down 
 by him that best did know what hath been written to be 
 true. Thomas Lucy."
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 85 
 
 VIII 
 
 MRS. TRACY'S OFFICIAL RELATIONS TO RIPON 
 COLLEGE 
 
 "Till the future dares forget the past, 
 Her fate and fame shall be 
 An echo and a light unto Eternity." 
 
 Shelley. 
 
 The first record of the Board of Trustees of Ripon 
 (then Brockway) College indicating Mrs. Tracy's official 
 relations was made on October 3, 1859, and is as follows: 
 "On motion of Mr. Bowen, voted to employ Mrs. Tracy 
 as matron of the boarding department, and to hear such 
 recitations as may be necessary, at a salary of three hun- 
 dred dollars a year." This vote was in a manner pro- 
 phetic, for Mrs. Tracy served the college largely in double 
 relations, having the capacity of effective leadership in the 
 so-called secularities, and being at the same time a vigor- 
 ous and successful teacher. Prophetic also as to the matter 
 of compensation, for the pay was always meagerly mod- 
 est, and for much of the time she was expected to make 
 her salary by her skill and economy in the management of 
 the domestic department. She served the college for the 
 love of it and the good she could do to her pupils, and her 
 reward has been rich in the love of many whom she 
 strengthened in character, and blest with the service of 
 unstinted love. On July 20, 1864, the board adopted a 
 recommendation of President Merriman, "that Mrs. Tracy's 
 salary be derived from the income of the boarding depart- 
 ment," and on July 19th of the following year the Presi-
 
 86 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 dent reported that "Mr. Merrell, Mrs. Tracy, and Mrs. 
 Woodrow have been constantly and fully employed in 
 teaching the whole year." Nevertheless Mrs. Tracy was, 
 during all of the time, head of the boarding department, 
 and the somewhat strenuous nature of her duties is indi- 
 cated in action of the board on June 27, 1871. In addi- 
 tion to her teaching duties, as matron she was "to have 
 exclusive charge of the domestic department; to have the 
 care of the halls and rooms when unoccupied; to have 
 the assignment of domestic work to the young ladies; and 
 to act as hostess, all invitations of company in behalf of 
 the college to be made through her, and no company to 
 be invited except with her approval." 
 
 During the last years of her life no work was assigned 
 her by the faculty, yet much of the time she taught small 
 classes at her home, or acted as coach for students that 
 needed to be helped over hard spots. But almost to the 
 last her feeble steps led to the chapel at the time of daily 
 worship, for here was the center of her deepest and truest 
 love. Her presence was a rebuke to the careless and a 
 benediction to those gathered in the spirit of sincere worship. 
 
 But, notwithstanding the meagerness of her pecuniary 
 compensation, she suffered no real want. Though no 
 official action was taken in the matter, the college by 
 common consent continued her salary to the very end. 
 The jar of meal did not waste, neither did the cruse of oil 
 fail. By some profitable little investments, made through 
 the aid of her son, she had managed to purchase a modest 
 home, and this shortly before her death she left to the 
 college, a gift to the endowment funds. Where her heart 
 was, thither her treasure went also.
 
 A 
 
 ^ 1
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 87 
 
 MRS. CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 No more will the familiar figure of our beloved friend, 
 Mrs. Clarissa Tucker Tracy, be seen on the streets of 
 Ripon; no more shall we hear the familiar voice in chapel 
 or prayer meeting, and Ripon will not seem like Ripon to 
 many of us, who have been privileged to be in close touch 
 with her throughout the years. Mrs. Tracy was pre-emi- 
 nently a woman who knew how to be a friend. Her 
 sympathies were so large and catholic that all kinds and 
 conditions of folk found room in her affections, and she 
 had the ample charity that could cover a multitude of sins 
 and keep on loving the sinner. She not only discerned the 
 best that there was in the people around her, but was able 
 to draw their very best out. Hers was the heart 
 
 "At leisure from itself 
 To soothe and sympathize"; 
 
 and none ever went to her for comfort and found her 
 wanting. 
 
 Her life has been lived right here among us, and has been 
 clearly read by all of us. It has not been a particularly 
 eventful life, so far as outward events go, just a "simple 
 life," spent quietly and busily and happily in being good 
 and doing good. In the nearly fifty years spent in Ripon, 
 she rarely left Ripon to go elsewhere. 
 
 As a friend said of her: " Why, she did not even care to 
 go to Europe, and she might have gone." Ripon seemed 
 to be sufficient for her, and it was. No person certainly 
 could have been more beloved, more honored, than she has 
 been; and the memory of her simple, wholesome, true 
 Christian life is as a sweet savor that lightens and bright- 
 ens the heavy atmosphere of this weary world for all of us.
 
 88 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 In the long conversations with her through the years, 
 indelible pictures were made upon the mind. We see 
 the little three-and-a-half-year maiden trotting the mile 
 through the dense Pennsylvania woods, beside her sturdy 
 little brother, to share the delights of "deestrick skule." 
 We see her quickly getting ahead of him in the reading, 
 and surprising the good mother at home, before three 
 months' attendance, by repeating "How doth the little 
 busy bee, " and other poems which she had learned to and 
 from school, from the fat little volume of Watts's Hymns, 
 which she had won as a prize. In the primitive log house, 
 in the well-nigh unbroken forest, we see the straight, 
 active little elder sister of ten, attending the babies, stir- 
 ring the porridge, knitting, sewing, spinning, and helping 
 wherever she could "lend a hand." At fourteen we see 
 her installed as village schoolmistress, active, bright, and 
 full of executive ability; then later in sugar-camp and 
 academy, acquiring that love of nature and of knowledge 
 whose thirst was never quenched, for it was in the spring- 
 times in the sugar-camp that she gained her wonderful 
 insight into floriculture, which made her later such an 
 authority in matters botanical, and it was at the academy 
 at Honesdale that she imbibed knowledge literally. She 
 herself often told the story of how she learned Latin. 
 She had to sit and study in the same room where the Latin 
 recitation was going on, and to the utter astonishment of 
 the teacher, the little Clarissa not only learned to read 
 Latin by simply hearing the recitations, but outdistanced 
 members of the class in her knowledge of the subject by 
 the same method, so that she was allowed to join the class. 
 
 The years of her triumphs as teacher at Honesdale, 
 Pennsylvania, and Neenah, Wisconsin, the many distin- 
 guished people with whom she was associated, would form 
 an interesting chapter, but would be out of place in an
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 89 
 
 article of this kind. What concerns us principally is her 
 connection with Ripon College. Mrs. Tracy was married 
 in 1844 to Horace Tracy, a brother of Judge Tracy, of 
 Honesdale. Upon his death, June 9, 1848, Mrs. Tracy was 
 left with two young children, Clarissa, who died in child- 
 hood, and Horace (later Dr. Horace Tracy, of Escanaba, 
 who died suddenly a few years ago), and once more re- 
 sumed her teaching. In an interesting autobiographical 
 sketch, published in the Milwaukee Sentinel, December 13, 
 1903, and later in the December, 1903, College Days, Mrs. 
 Tracy tells how she happened to come to Ripon. In the 
 autumn of 1855 she felt a revival of an early desire to teach 
 in less favored places. Several remarkable incidents oc- 
 curred that loosened the ties that bound her to the East, 
 and the call to Ripon seemed so clearly a special call, that, 
 committing her decision to Divine guidance, she felt that 
 she was led to come to Ripon. The following words from 
 Mrs. Tracy's mother helped her to come to a decision: 
 "I have long felt that it is your wish to do God's will in 
 any way He marks out for you. If you think this is the 
 way He leads you, I can only say 'Go.' " 
 
 So in the fall of 1859, October 3, began Mrs. C. T. 
 Tracy's connection with Ripon College. Only those who 
 knew her in her prime can have an adequate idea of 
 what she was to Ripon College in its earlier days. Her 
 wonderful versatility, resourcefulness, and indomitable 
 courage were important factors in the development of its 
 life, and helped to make it the strong institution that it 
 is. The following tribute in the Historical Sketch of 
 Ripon College, by ex-President Merrell, was true to the 
 life: "A woman of uncommon strength and nobility of 
 character; unconquerable in courage and fertile in re- 
 sources; self-sacrificing to the last degree for any good 
 cause she may have espoused; she has been a center of
 
 90 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 moral and intellectual unity through trying years, on 
 which the faith of weaker natures has taken hold as of a 
 cable of steel in a difficult pass. It is no wonder that 
 President Merriman on one occasion, in speaking of her 
 surprising capability in managing the internal domestic 
 affairs of the college, declared that he considered her ser- 
 vice of more importance than his own." 
 
 Whether feeding two hundred guests at the old-time 
 college collation, or housing a regiment, as when Colonel 
 La Grange and his men were quartered upon the campus, 
 Mrs. Tracy was always ready, equal to any emergency. 
 There was absolutely no self-seeking in her devotion to the 
 College; she worked for it because she loved it, and spared 
 neither time, strength, nor money from her meager salary 
 to further its interests. Of the young men and the young 
 women braced for life's battles by her invincible faith 
 and courage, only the great Judgment Day will reveal the 
 number. 
 
 For years Mrs. Tracy acted, in manifold capacity, ma- 
 tron of the domestic department, lady principal in addi- 
 tion to this, part of the time teacher of mathematics and 
 botany, and continued ber work actively up to two years 
 ago; since when she has been connected with the college 
 as Professor Emeritus, attending faculty meetings until 
 a few weeks ago, when the beginning of the end manifested 
 itself in a greatly impaired action of the heart. And so 
 our beloved friend was taken from us, but she lives and 
 will live always in our hearts. 
 
 Mrs. Tracy was a member of the Educational Club, 
 and for almost its entire history President of the Ripon 
 W. B. M. I. auxiliary, having its last meeting at her home 
 just two weeks ago, to hear the glad news from the front 
 in regard to the subject nearest to her heart, missions. 
 Her seat in church, chapel, and prayer meeting was rarely
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 91 
 
 vacant, and only four short weeks ago she went to church 
 for the last time, though barely able to walk. 
 
 One brother and a sister-in-law and a daughter-in-law, 
 Mrs. Horace Tracy, and her two daughters, Mrs. Henry 
 Osborn of Cleveland, Ohio, and Dorothy, are the only 
 surviving members of Mrs. Tracy's immediate family; 
 but her spiritual children are a host, and they rise up and 
 call her blessed. Ada Clark Merrell. 
 
 Ripon Commonwealth, 
 November 17, 1905. 
 
 SERVICES AT THE CHURCH 
 
 The funeral services at the Congregational Church were 
 conducted by the pastor, Dr. S. T. Kidder, assisted by Dr. 
 E. H. Merrell and Professor Jesse F. Taintor. A large choir 
 sang some of Mrs. Tracy's favorite hymns, "Lead, Kindly 
 Light," "Jerusalem the Golden," and "Arise, My Soul, 
 and Stretch Thy Wings." Professor Meier presided at the 
 organ. Dr. Kidder's prayers and scriptural selections 
 were most tender and comforting, and the readings from 
 Mrs. Tracy's poems most beautiful. In his brief opening 
 remarks, Dr. Kidder told us that we were present on an 
 occasion, not of sadness, but of triumph; therefore we 
 ought not to weep, but to rejoice in her good fortune who 
 had gone from us. 
 
 The address of Dr. Merrell was to the effect that Mrs. 
 Tracy's story was already told, writ in large letters in living 
 characters, so that he that runs might read in her life 
 itself; a poem set, perhaps, in rough meter, but one that 
 would set one's pulses beating faster; a song that sung 
 itself. Briefly reviewing her history, Dr. Merrell said 
 hers was a case in which words seemed meaningless, she 
 herself was so much more. Asking why her life was so
 
 92 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 forceful and popular, he gave four reasons : because it was 
 intellectual, administrative, religious, and crowned with 
 self-surrender. This last made all the rest forceful and 
 enabled her to transform the lives of others and multiply 
 her influence. The life of Mrs. Mary Spencer Thayer was 
 cited as one of these mighty multiplications. He placed 
 her not, perhaps, among the great of this earth, but among 
 the great of those who walk the heavenly streets, because 
 she had strength, moral earnestness, magnanimity, and 
 the spirit of self-sacrifice, which combined made character, 
 and character alone is great. 
 
 A beautiful message from the Chicago alumni was read. 
 
 Professor Taintor called our attention to one note, the 
 note of victory. It was not a time for woeful lamenta- 
 tion, but for rejoicing, since she was not dead, but living. 
 He paid a tender tribute to the beauty of her character 
 and its far-reaching influence, and bade us heed the mes- 
 sage which was her last public charge to the sons and 
 daughters of Ripon, "Little children, love one another." 
 As that was the dominant strain in her song, so let it be 
 the dominant chord in our lives. 
 
 Most fitting was it that the flowers were so numerous 
 and so beautiful and so exquisitely arranged, for she 
 dearly loved flowers. The faculty and students marched 
 to the church, and with a large number of friends, after 
 the service at the church, followed all that was mortal of 
 our beloved one, as it was borne by the faculty and seniors 
 in turn to its last resting-place in the cemetery on the 
 hillside.
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 93 
 
 TRACY FUNERAL, NOVEMBER 15, 1905 
 
 Organ Prelude Chopin. 
 
 Sentence and Invocation, Prayer. 
 
 Hymn "Lead, Kindly Light." 
 
 Scripture, Ps. 107. 
 
 Mrs. Tracy's Poems Dr. S. T. Kidder 
 
 Prayer. 
 
 Hymn "Jerusalem the Golden." 
 
 Address Dr. E. H. Merrell. 
 
 Address Prof. J. F. Taintor. 
 
 Hymn "Rise, my Soul." 
 
 Benediction Dr. E. H. Merrell. 
 
 Postlude. 
 
 MINUTE OF CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 
 
 Ripon, Wisconsin, 
 Thursday, Nov. 23, 1905. 
 
 Anniversary meeting and roll-call, at which one hun- 
 dred and four members were present, and forty more sent 
 responses to the invitation. 
 
 A minute in memorial of Mrs. Tracy was presented by 
 Dr. E. H. Merrell, and read as follows: 
 
 "Deeply sensible of the loss sustained in the death of 
 Mrs. Clarissa Tucker Tracy, which occurred on the 13th 
 of November, 1905, and desiring to give expression to our 
 sorrow, our admiration for her exceptional worth, and our 
 esteem for her many good works in the midst of us, which 
 were constant during the long period of more than forty-six 
 years, this First Congregational Church of Ripon directs 
 that the following minute be spread upon its records : 
 
 "1. We unite in devout thanksgiving to God, the giver 
 of all perfect gifts, that He raised up for large and special 
 service this noble woman; that He directed her steps to 
 this Church and to Ripon College, in connection with which
 
 94 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 the larger part of her life work was accomplished; and 
 that He kept her in life and strength to bear witness for 
 Himself unto the great age of eighty-seven years and one 
 day. 
 
 "2. In honor of her memory, and for our own admoni- 
 tion, we mention and record certain traits and moral quali- 
 ties in the possession of which she was conspicuous and 
 distinguished. Her intellect was vigorous and keen, her 
 knowledge was comprehensive and thorough, especially 
 in the truths of the Bible, and in the branches of study 
 which she made specialties; her courage in obeying the 
 calls of duty and in confronting obstacles was unconquer- 
 able; her faithfulness extended to the last details of 
 responsibility; her faith never wavered in afflictions or 
 trials; her charity covered the faults of others like a man- 
 tle, so that she wrought harmoniously with them; her wit 
 was keen to find the many profitable ways of church and 
 missionary activity; and in self -surrendering sacrifice she 
 had no superior and few peers. By her loving service she 
 built her life into many another, who have acknowledged 
 their indebtedness with deepest gratitude. In respect to 
 her services for the college, one of the older alumni writes : 
 'A wonderful woman, true to the last to the best spirit 
 of the best days of Ripon College, a spirit which she herself 
 was immensely instrumental in creating and sustaining. 
 Her life was strenuous and heroic, and fully rounded out. 
 Is there another which has been more powerfully influen- 
 tial upon the lives of all Ripon students ? ' 
 
 "3. Deploring the break in our ranks caused by this 
 death, we highly resolve to consecrate ourselves anew to 
 the work of this mother in Israel so deeply loved, and, in 
 emulation of her spirit and aims, by patient continuance 
 in well-doing, to seek for glory and honor and immortality, 
 the eternal life which she has triumphantly entered."
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 95 
 
 Voted, that this minute be indorsed by the Church 
 and spread upon the records. 
 
 Voted, that the thanks of the Church be given to Mrs. 
 E. N. Davison for the gift of photographs of Mrs. Tracy, 
 framed for placing in the vestry. 
 
 (Signed) Charles H. Chandler, Clerk. 
 
 A MEMORIAL FROM THE FACULTY 
 
 At a meeting of the Faculty the following minute was 
 adopted and entered upon the records: 
 
 Mrs. Clarissa T. Tracy, for forty-six years an intellectual 
 and spiritual force in the college and community life, has 
 finished her work among us, and has entered upon the 
 larger life. 
 
 As the Faculty of Ripon College, we desire, therefore, to 
 express, for the college and for ourselves, our profound 
 appreciation of her life work. We recognize the unmeas- 
 ured worth of her steadfast patience, her self-forgetful 
 devotion, her unfailing loyalty to duty, her ever-ready 
 helpfulness, her uncompromising righteousness, her Chris- 
 tian consecration and her Christian love, as these have been 
 manifested in her long years of service. We account our- 
 selves and the College richer and stronger and better because 
 of her life among us, and we believe that the grateful and 
 gracious influence of her life will long abide as a power for 
 good in the institution for which she so unsparingly gave 
 herself. 
 
 We gladly and heartily declare also her peculiar helpful- 
 ness through the years, as a member of this body. In 
 former years her wisdom in council was always to be relied 
 upon, and her judgment on all matters pertaining to the 
 college was always as a tower of strength, as in later years
 
 96 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 the Christian influence of her presence has been an element 
 of inspiration. 
 
 In the quiet and peace of her later days, and in the gentle 
 and painless passing from an earthly to a heavenly home, 
 we see the tenderness of a loving Providence, and we rejoice 
 that, having brought forth fruit even to old age, she has 
 now entered upon an endless life, having a right to the 
 fruits of the tree of life. 
 
 This minute is prepared that, as spread upon our records, 
 it may stand as a permanent witness to our loving regard 
 for Mrs. Tracy as an individual, as a member of this body, 
 and an instructor in the college, as a personal influence 
 molding for good the lives of the young, and as a devoted 
 follower of our common Lord and Master. 
 
 F. M. Erickson, Secretary. 
 
 TELEGRAM FROM THE CHICAGO ASSOCIATION 
 
 Chicago, Nov. 14, 1905. 
 Whereas, Divine Providence has called home for her 
 everlasting rest from earthly labors our dearly beloved 
 teacher and friend, Clarissa Tracy, we, the Chicago Asso- 
 ciation of Ripon Alumni and Students, unite in this expres- 
 sion of affectionate remembrance of Mrs. Tracy's great love 
 for every one who has been a student at Ripon College, and 
 of our profound respect for those qualities of heart and 
 mind which, during so many years, made her an inspiring 
 teacher and a loyal supporter of Ripon College in its days 
 of trial as well as in its days of prosperity. 
 
 Frank Newhall White, William R. Dawes, 
 Henry M. Lemon, Wilton B. Judd, 
 
 Frederick A. Dawes, Charles P. Coffin, 
 
 Committee.
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 97 
 
 MEMORIAL TO MRS. C. T. TRACY, NOVEMBER 
 13, 1905 
 
 The members of the Ladies' Foreign Missionary Society 
 of Ripon, Wisconsin, feel that we have sustained a great 
 loss in the removal of our beloved President, Mrs. C. T. 
 Tracy, November 13, 1905. We desire to express our 
 appreciation of her deep and abiding interest in the cause 
 we represent. This interest was manifested by her regular 
 attendance, having missed but one meeting since 1895; 
 and by her interest and knowledge of the many missionaries 
 who are in the field. Since 1880 she has been a most 
 faithful President of the Society, and we hope that her 
 example of faithfulness, love, and piety may be an inspira- 
 tion to us all in the years that are to come. While we 
 mourn our loss we rejoice in believing that she has entered 
 into a blessed inheritance with the Saints in Light. 
 
 Eva Harris, 
 Secretary W. B. M. I. Auxiliary. 
 
 MRS. TRACY'S CHURCH LIFE 
 
 Mrs. Tracy was a church member of such a steadfast, 
 ready, joyous, broad-souled type that if all church members 
 were of similar quality there would be no difficulty in 
 having the "world won to Christ in this generation." For 
 more than forty-six years she was a wide-awake, work- 
 ing member of the Ripon Church. It was her Church in a 
 deep, true sense. She loved it, and loved its ordinances. 
 Her place in its assemblies for worship was never empty 
 if she were in town and well. Her counsel, for many years, 
 in its prudential committee was indispensably wise and 
 helpful. She attended its prayer-meetings in all weathers, 
 because she loved to, and not as a perfunctory service.
 
 98 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 The old hymns of the Church were dear to her, the place of 
 prayer and Christian converse cheered her, and she always 
 cheered others by her ready prayers and testimonies that 
 were ever most heartfelt and strong. Her life and influence 
 gave them a substantial quality that told mightily for the 
 Master. She was a thoroughly genuine and joyous Chris- 
 tian. Her sympathy with world-wide missions was fervent, 
 and her missionary intelligence strikingly complete and 
 always at hand. The missionaries of the Ripon Church 
 and the college were ever near her heart. Yet no other 
 cause benevolent, near or far, found her heart dry or her 
 hands empty. She loved the Sunday school, and was for 
 many years a teacher, constant and finely successful, 
 because she was a close daily Bible student. She loved the 
 young people, and kept herself young with them. She was 
 no stranger in their devotional and social gatherings. In 
 short, she was a balanced, dependable, humble, yet mar- 
 velously effective Christian. 
 
 S. T. Kidder, 
 Pastor Congregational Church, Ripon, Wis.
 
 PART II 
 
 POEMS AND PROSE ARTICLES 
 BY CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY
 
 HOW MUCH OWEST THOU MY LORD ? 
 
 A fair New England girl in youth's sweet morn, 
 With visions bright of earthly love and fame, 
 
 One who to luxury and ease was born, 
 But gave herself to God in Jesus' name; 
 
 There came to her the thought, a debt of love I owe, 
 
 To heathen souls, who no such blessings know. 
 
 In her own quiet room she knelt, 
 
 With words of consecration deep and true, 
 
 A blessed unseen Presence then she felt, 
 It was her loving Saviour then she knew. 
 
 Then forth across the ocean's waves she went, 
 
 Feeling by God's commission she was sent. 
 
 Her earthly life was brief, but full of peace; 
 Some said, "A waste, a waste. Too great a price 
 
 Has thus been paid for work so soon to cease." 
 An ocean islet long has held her dust, 
 Where she gave up her life in joyful trust. 
 
 But the sweet story of her life has thrilled 
 The hearts of many maidens in our land, 
 
 Which with true missionary zeal were filled. 
 They too went forth, a consecrated band, 
 
 To lost ones bore the message from above, 
 
 Of an Almighty Saviour's dying love. 
 
 A noble youth, who knelt at learning's shrine, 
 Heard a strange voice that whispered to his heart, 
 101
 
 102 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 "Honor and fame of earth thou must resign, 
 
 Thee I have chosen for a better part; 
 Go bear my message to the heathen lost." 
 The mission he fulfilled, nor spared the cost. 
 
 To Burma's sons he gave God's Holy Word, 
 In their own tongue, and by its precious love 
 
 New hopes and aims were in them stirred, 
 And by its light, they saw the open door, 
 
 Which was an entrance to a life divine, 
 
 Whose blessed beams shall ever on them shine. 
 
 From out these college walls there went a youth 
 With burning zeal and faith inspired ; 
 
 To Africa he bore God's words of truth, 
 Nor ever of his loving labor tired ; 
 
 But preached and taught with hope and holy cheer 
 
 Till called to service in a higher sphere.* 
 
 And one I knew, possessed of worldly store, 
 
 To her the question came, "What owest thou?" 
 
 She answered, " I owe all I have and more," 
 And gave her earthly wealth in solemn vow. 
 
 Now joyful ones, by help of her bequest, 
 
 Are teaching heathen souls of Christ and rest. 
 
 Ask thou this question, O my secret soul! 
 
 And may'st thou then, such answer make, 
 That as the ages ceaseless, onward roll, 
 
 Shall be, I paid my debt for Jesus' sake, 
 And so with all the life and soul renewed 
 Thou shalt with Christ's own spirit be endued. 
 
 * Rev. Myron Pinkerton, 1867.
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 103 
 
 Each one must have his own Gethsemane, 
 Must cheerfully and humbly bear the Cross. 
 
 Before his vision will be clear to see, 
 That life for Christ is gain, and never loss. 
 
 Then will he work with earnest heart and voice, 
 
 That heathen souls may, too, in Christ rejoice. 
 
 "0 God, our souls with holy oil anoint, 
 
 A sense of high commission on us lay, 
 To each one work of sacrifice appoint, 
 
 For this with consecrated hearts we pray, 
 That we shall learn with faith and joy to give, 
 And know the only way to truly live." 
 
 Written by Mrs. C. T. Tracy, and recited by Miss Lulu Dysart, at the 
 W. B. M. I. meeting at the Congregational State Convention, held in Ripon, 
 Wisconsin, 1898. 
 
 I ASK MY SECRET SOUL 
 
 Written by Mrs. C. T. Tracy, and read at the annual meet- 
 ing of the Wisconsin State Convention, 1898. 
 
 I ask my secret soul, "What owest thou?" 
 0, may'st thou so obey God's great command 
 
 That some time in His bright, eternal Now, 
 When thou art dwelling in that "better land," 
 
 When thou, by faith, the victory hast won, 
 
 May hear the Saviour's blessed words, "Well done."
 
 104 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 MUSINGS 
 
 Were all my secret thoughts to some one known, 
 And could that some one's thoughts be made my own, 
 Would we esteem each other more or less ? 
 And would those thoughts be such as harm or bless ? 
 
 Could another's pain be given to me to bear, 
 And all my pain could be that other's share, 
 Should I have greater ease or greater peace ? 
 And would that other find from it release ? 
 
 Could I exchange my cottage in the town 
 For palace owned by one of great renown, 
 Should I then be filled with joy and gladness ? 
 Or be sore oppressed with woe and sadness ? 
 
 Idle musings these, yet they will recur, 
 And many souls with doubts they often stir. 
 Then restlessly they seek for something new, 
 But all their hopes shall vanish as the dew. 
 
 A better, truer way I know full well, 
 And now the secret I will gladly tell : 
 Accept thy present lot, and fill thy place, 
 And God will give to thee His joy and grace. 
 
 DAY BY DAY 
 
 He walketh with me day by day, 
 And cheers my spirit all the way; 
 He sheds around His blessed light, 
 Gives comfort in the darkest night. 
 
 Though winds may blow and clouds may lower 
 These only show His wondrous power, 
 Bring Him more clearly to our view, 
 And thus our faith and strength renew.
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 105 
 
 THE GRACE OF GOD 
 
 O God, we thank Thee for the grace, 
 Thou giv'st in time of sorest need, 
 
 Thy mysteries we may not trace, 
 But all Thy promises may plead. 
 
 The hand we do not clearly see 
 
 That lifts and wields the chast'ning rod, 
 
 But know that it can only be 
 That of the living, loving God. 
 
 Though days of doubt and days of fear, 
 And sorrow come to pierce the heart, 
 
 We know, we feel, if God be near, 
 He can repel the sharpest dart. 
 
 How strangely dull the spirit seems 
 When Love's best gifts are brought; 
 
 We grasp them only as in dreams 
 And in our blindness say, 'Tis naught. 
 
 But when the scales from off our eyes 
 
 Shall fall, e'en though the heart be riven, 
 Our souls in praise to God shall rise, 
 For His severest lessons given. 
 April, 1892.
 
 106 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 IT IS THE LORD* 
 
 " Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is 
 the Lord." John xxi. 7. 
 
 Who gives this peace to troubled hearts, 
 And says to them, "Be still and rest," 
 
 And thus a heavenly calm imparts, 
 So they can say, "He knoweth best " ? 
 "It is the Lord." 
 
 He still, beside the weak and lone, 
 
 As on the shores of Galilee, 
 Comes sweetly to His loved, His own, 
 
 And bids them look by faith and see, 
 "It is the Lord." 
 
 O burdened heart! stricken soul ! 
 
 The darkest cloud will pass away, 
 The burden from thy heart shall roll 
 
 When thou in faith and hope canst say, 
 "It is the Lord." 
 
 Then in thy daily tasks of love, 
 
 And with this vision clear and bright, 
 Seek thou not earth, but things above, 
 Till thou canst say, faith changed to sight, 
 "It is the Lord." 
 Ripon College. The Advance, January, 1892. 
 
 Written January, 1892, shortly after the sudden death of Mrs. Tracy's 
 only son. Dr. J. Horace Tracy, of Escanaba, Michigan.
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 107 
 
 DOUBT AND FAITH* 
 
 "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; 
 and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee." Is. xliii. 2 
 
 I stood upon the shore with dread, 
 My heart was overborne with fear, 
 
 When softly came a voice that said: 
 "A strong and loving one is near; 
 
 "Let your faint heart in him confide, 
 And firmly grasp his outstretched hand, 
 
 Till thou hast reached the other side, 
 And there in peace and safety stand." 
 
 I knew, when once the stream was crossed, 
 That brighter scenes would be in view, 
 
 And yet it seemed so tempest-tossed, 
 My heart was filled with tremblings new. 
 
 My spirit upward bore a prayer 
 
 Quick through the rifted heavens there came 
 
 A voice: "I will be with thee there; 
 Jehovah-jireh is my name." 
 
 Though still the waves before me roll, 
 The other shore looks far and dim, 
 
 I say, "Be quiet, my soul, 
 And joyfully leave all to Him." 
 Ripon College, Wisconsin. 
 
 * A copy of this poem was sent to Mrs. T. J. Sullivan, of Ripon, Wisconsin, 
 in her last mortal illness, and comforted and touched her deeply, shortly before 
 she herself "crossed the bar," December 5, 1907.
 
 108 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 LENTEN MUSINGS 
 
 As oft at early morn I hear 
 The ringing notes of chanticleer, 
 I think of far Gethsemane, 
 In vision there the Saviour see. 
 
 From those He loved and called His own, 
 He goes apart to pray alone; 
 While there His lonely watch He kept, 
 Unconscious, His disciples slept. 
 
 There in that dark and awful hour. 
 Again He felt the tempter's power. 
 Aloud He cried, "If this can be, 
 O Father, take this cup from me." 
 
 "Yet I would do Thy holy will 
 And all Thy purposes fulfill." 
 He comes where His disciples lie, 
 In tones of grief I hear His cry : 
 
 "O, boastful Peter, can it be? 
 
 Couldst thou not watch one hour with Me ? 
 
 Again He goes from them away, 
 
 Again in loneliness to pray. 
 
 While now He pleads on bended- knee, 
 Light from the opening heavens I see; 
 A messenger on angel wings 
 To Him the needed strength now brings. 
 
 A holy calm is on his brow, 
 
 He goes to His disciples now, 
 
 And bids them take their rest in sleep, 
 
 No further vigils need they keep.
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 109 
 
 Then Judas comes with traitor kiss, 
 Was ever perfidy like this ? 
 The soldiers lead the Christ away 
 Then fades the scene till light of day. 
 
 The Saviour stands at Pilate's bar, 
 And Peter follows Him afar, 
 While now his soul the tempter tries, 
 And thrice his Master he denies. 
 
 Just then the cock's shrill notes he hears, 
 The startling sound awakes his fears. 
 The Saviour's eye is on him turned; 
 The look into his soul was burned. 
 Keen sense of guilt now o'er him swept, 
 In bitterness of soul he wept. 
 
 Peter and Christ once more I see, 
 Beside the shores of Galilee. 
 There Peter's love the Master tests, 
 And gives to him His last behests; 
 In faith, His great command to keep, 
 To feed His lambs and feed His sheep. 
 
 O, Peter! type of sinners all, 
 Who in temptation sadly fall; 
 May we a lesson learn from thee, 
 As we thy bitter sorrow see. 
 
 May we with souls repentant bow 
 And hear the voice of pardon now. 
 We, too, some Christ-like message bear, 
 To those oppressed with woe and care.
 
 110 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 The following poems, "The Heavenly Guest," "Some- 
 where," "Rejoice, Rejoice," and "Children of Light," etc., 
 were read by Dr. S. T. Kidder at Mrs. Tracy's funeral. 
 The following comment was written at the side by Dr. 
 Kidder, on the page on which the poems were copied: 
 "Her spirit was a songful one, and found a sweet expres- 
 sion in the forms of poesy, light and graceful, ever devout 
 and trustful, and lent itself most readily to heavenly 
 themes." 
 
 THE HEAVENLY GUEST 
 
 " If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in 
 to him, and will sup with him and he with me." Rev. iii. 20. 
 
 Come in, come in, Thou sacred guest, 
 
 I open wide the door; 
 Come, make this heart Thy place of rest, 
 
 And leave it nevermore. 
 
 I know, I feel, Thy power to bless 
 
 In sorrow's darkest hour; 
 Thy lovingkindness, I confess, 
 
 Hath ever-healing power. 
 
 Come in, come in, and sup with me 
 
 I give Thee all my store : 
 For all, and more, I owe to Thee, 
 
 Who giveth evermore. 
 
 'Twill be a sweet, a heavenly feast, 
 
 Where Thou a guest shall be; 
 No high, no low, no great, no least, 
 
 But all be one with Thee.
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 111 
 
 SOMEWHERE 
 
 Somewhere in God's own realm so vast, 
 O'er which a mystic vale is cast, 
 Shutting the future from the past, 
 Our loved ones gone are living still, 
 And there his purposes fulfill. 
 
 And whether they be far or near, 
 I cannot see, I cannot hear. 
 For them I have no doubt or fear, 
 Since He who is our faithful guide 
 Doth over all His realms preside. 
 
 Sometimes a living presence seems 
 
 To come as forms oft come in dreams, 
 
 And soothes and cheers like hope's bright beams; 
 
 And then I ask if this may be 
 
 Some ministering angel sent to me. 
 
 If this be so, 'tis not revealed, 
 Perhaps in wisdom is concealed; 
 And so I grasp faith's blessed shield, 
 In patience wait till God unfolds 
 The secrets which the future holds. 
 November 17, 1905.
 
 112 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 REJOICE, REJOICE 
 
 Lines composed lying in bed, convalescing from an attack of La 
 Grippe, April 9, 1900. 
 
 Rejoice, rejoice, O soul of mine, 
 To know and feel that love divine, 
 Doth walk with me my pilgrim way, 
 To guide and bless me day by day. 
 
 That blessed healing power I feel, 
 Which doth to me Thy love reveal; 
 Thou art my ever-present friend, 
 The one that loves me to the end. 
 
 To Thee, in faith, I humbly bow 
 In penitence I come just now 
 Great Three in One and One in Three 
 Thou living, blessed Trinity. 
 
 The rising sun now gilds the earth, 
 To usher in the new day's birth, 
 O, Sun of Righteousness, appear! 
 And thus my spirit's vision clear. 
 
 Lift us from low and groveling toys 
 To bask in Thy eternal joys; 
 To have the love that casts out fear, 
 And know my living Saviour near. 
 
 While life's brief space is left me yet, 
 
 help me never to forget 
 
 To use it all in humble ways 
 
 To "speak my dear Redeemer's praise."
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 113 
 
 CHILDREN OF LIGHT 
 
 A fragment of an unpublished poem. Dated November 12, 1898, 
 the day Mrs. Tracy rounded out her full fourscore years. 
 
 Are loved ones waiting over there, 
 Wishing with me their joys to share ? 
 Dear ones, in fields so bright and fair ? 
 But I'm not longing for the change, 
 To me mysterious and strange. 
 
 This home is pleasant; life is sweet, 
 Where loved ones often with me meet. 
 Heaven's joys " come down our souls to greet." 
 What is beyond I know not well, 
 No one returns the tale to tell. 
 
 And yet the coming dawn draws near; 
 
 Celestial voices greet the ear; 
 
 They bring sweet peace, destroying fear. 
 I flee to Him who knoweth best, 
 And in His arms I calmly rest. 
 
 O wondrous fair, this world we see! 
 But fairer that which is to be, 
 Where all from sorrow shall be free. 
 And yet I would still longer stay 
 Where light from heaven shines on my way.
 
 114 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 IN MEMORIAM 
 
 Lines written by Mrs. C. T. Tracy on hearing of the death 
 of Mrs. Carrie Scott Harrison, wife of ex-President Harrison, with 
 whom she was personally acquainted while Miss Scott was visit- 
 ing her sister, Mrs. Lord, in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. 
 
 God, with reverent hearts we bow; 
 
 A pall is o'er our nation flung! 
 No place for vain ambition now, 
 
 Or peans which so late we sung. 
 Our nation's honored chief is stricken sore, 
 His best beloved wakes on earth no more. 
 
 Mem'ry backward turns the stream of time, 
 
 And would some fitting tribute bring 
 To her who then in Love's sweet prime 
 
 Seemed like the budding hopes of spring, 
 As with the noble youth who won her heart, 
 She spoke the vows that bind "till death do part." 
 
 Full well did she those vows fulfill, 
 Through all the swiftly passing years, 
 
 In ease or pain, in joy or ill, 
 
 While dwelling in this "vale of tears," 
 
 Where she with loving words and loving deeds 
 
 Was quick to feel and care for others' needs. 
 
 Not for the sainted one we weep, 
 
 Her pains and sorrows all are o'er, 
 Our hearts their tearful vigils keep 
 
 For those still on this hither shore. 
 Her heavenly peace and bliss we may not know 
 Mid clouds of doubt and darkness here below.
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 115 
 
 For mortal eye hath never seen 
 
 Nor mortal foot hath ever trod 
 The hidden path that lies between 
 
 The spirit's earthly life and God. 
 But faith may surely waft her pinions far, 
 And catch the light that gleams through "Gates Ajar." 
 
 Ripon College, Wisconsin, 
 October 25, 1892. 
 
 TO MR. AND MRS. DIXON 
 
 To my Beloved Friends, Mr. and Mrs. H. H. Dixon, on the 
 Fiftieth Anniversary of their Marriage. 
 
 Beloved friends of many years 
 That have so quickly passed away. 
 
 Years filled with hope, with joy and fears, 
 But naught their onward course could stay. 
 
 And now the sunset shore is near, 
 The golden dawn seems just in view. 
 
 God grant to you his holy cheer, 
 The blessed promises renew. 
 
 On this your anniversary day, 
 
 May Heavenly peace upon you rest, 
 
 A holy light shine on your way, 
 
 In heart and home may you be blest. 
 
 And when life's troubled sea is crossed, 
 The other shore is reached at last, 
 
 Although this sea seemed tempest-tossed 
 No cloud shall more its waves o'ercast. 
 
 If we on earth no more may meet, 
 
 God grant together we may sing 
 His praise in accents strong and sweet, 
 
 Where Hallelujahs ever ring.
 
 116 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 TO REV. L. J. WHITE* 
 
 Loved friend, thy earthly work is done, 
 The lonely, darkling hour is passed, 
 
 The fight is fought, the victory won; 
 Sweet peace and rest have come at last. 
 
 No more God's messages of love 
 Thy lips with burning zeal shall speak; 
 
 No more in prayer bear those above, 
 Who, penitent, His mercy seek. 
 
 No more shall bleeding spirits hear 
 Thy words of sympathy expressed, 
 
 Bringing a loving Saviour near 
 
 On whom the burdened soul may rest. 
 
 Though lands afar beyond the sea 
 
 Shall claim and hold thy precious dust, 
 
 Not there thy dwelling-place shall be, 
 But in the mansions of the just. 
 
 And Christ's own glory thou shalt share, 
 For faith shall there be lost in sight 
 
 No sun, no moon, no darkness there, 
 For Christ the Lamb shall be thy light. 
 
 Help us, O God, in faith to bear 
 This cross, this discipline of pain, 
 
 Committing all to Thy dear care, 
 And then our loss shall be our gain. 
 
 * Mr. White died in London, January 10, 1903, and was buried in Norwood 
 Cemetery, not far from the graves of Moffat and Spurgeon. "
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 117 
 
 TO SCIENCE AND EDUCATIONAL CLUBS 
 
 On August 9, 1899, about twenty ladies, members of the Science 
 and Educational clubs, met at Miss Hazen's cottage on the south 
 shore of Green Lake, to enjoy an outing. After being seated at the 
 long and well-filled dining tables, the following poem from Mrs. 
 Tracy was read: 
 
 Dear friends, I greet you, one and all, 
 
 On this our joyous festive day; 
 A day that you may oft recall, 
 
 When months and years have passed away. 
 
 If now my absence you regret, 
 
 And speak my name with loving thought, 
 
 Remember I am with you yet, 
 In all that we have loved and wrought. 
 
 And when the day is well begun, 
 
 As you our muster-roll shall call, 
 Just think that you miss only one, 
 
 While I, alasl shall miss you ail. 
 
 As words of wisdom and of wit 
 Shall shed a brightness on the hours, 
 
 May they be such as well befit 
 The beauty of these woodland bowers. 
 
 Sound forth, O birds, your sweetest notes, 
 
 Carol your best, divinest lays, 
 And as your music upward floats, 
 
 "Extol your great Creator's praise." 
 
 Blow gently, wind, your fierceness stay, 
 Bear words of kindness on your wings 
 
 To those who walk a tangled way, 
 Yet long and pray for better things.
 
 118 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 God bless our hostesses to-day, 
 
 And bless the guests who gather here, 
 
 For this my inmost heart shall pray, 
 And thank the Lord for friends so dear. 
 
 May love divine bless this repast, 
 
 And give you sweet and gracious cheer, 
 
 Crown all with hope while life shall last, 
 And peace and joy without a tear.
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 119 
 
 THE SISTERHOOD OF WIDOWS 
 
 This is a peculiar sisterhood; it is as old as the history 
 of the world. It has no organization, no ritual, yet its 
 members are found in every place and in every condition 
 of life. The queen on the throne is of the number, the 
 empress, once idolized, wears her weeds in exile. The 
 humble peasant enters into fellowship. The teacher, the 
 nurse, the physician, all claim kindred in this sisterhood. 
 
 God has honored it by placing around it peculiar guards, 
 and granting immunities. The "fiery prophet of Horeb" 
 was commissioned by God to minister to one in need; his 
 gentler successor followed his example. Later, the prophet 
 whose lips God "touched with hallowed fire," uttered 
 denunciations against those who oppressed her. 
 
 Many of the proverbs of the "wise men" were those of 
 rebuke or warning to those who neglected duties owed to 
 her. The Man of Uz pleads his cause before God because 
 he has not sent the widow and the fatherless away empty. 
 Apostles exhort to visit and relieve them. The Lord 
 Christ showed his tenderest interest in healing their diseases 
 and raising the dead to life, of an "only son, and his mother 
 a widow." He gave a most remarkable commendation to 
 another who cast a pittance into the treasury, saying her 
 gift was more than all the rich had cast therein, because it 
 was all her living. Instances are not wanting in these 
 later days of God's peculiar care of this sisterhood. 
 
 Many eminent ministers of the Gospel have testified that 
 they owed all their inspiration in their work to the counsel 
 and prayers of their widowed mothers. Illustrious men 
 and women in other callings give the same testimony. 
 
 So, dear members of this sisterhood, though the path 
 you tread often seems dark and lonely, let it give you hope
 
 120 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 and cheer to know that a great host of your sisters have 
 trodden it, and found comfort and joy while trusting in God, 
 and have bravely taken up the tasks of life, even when the 
 heart was almost breaking for the memory of the loved and 
 lost ones. Light will surely dawn in God's own time, for 
 He is the light of the world, in a peculiar manner, to the 
 members of this sisterhood. 
 
 O widowed heart, child left fatherless, 
 God cares for thee, his promises are sure; 
 Though clouds and darkess may oft surround thee 
 His sun is shining still. Thou yet shall see 
 And feel the healing beams, O troubled soul, 
 And say, My Lord and God, in thee I trust. 
 
 THE MINISTRY OF SORROW 
 
 Having recently been led by experience to inquire con- 
 cerning the ministry of sorrow, especially in the loss of dear 
 friends, I have recalled several incidents of my experience 
 that have come to me with great vividness at this time, 
 
 I will relate a few of these; they may be a help to some 
 other sorrowing ones who have not yet been led out of the 
 region of doubt and questioning. 
 
 "O Sorrow, cruel fellowship, 
 O Priestess in the vaults of death! " 
 
 So sang England's Laureate and the world's divinest poet. 
 But is this true, all true ? Many a one has felt it to be true 
 in the first sense of loss and desolation, but sorrow, as 
 priestess, has offered on the altar of that heart a pure and 
 holy incense that has risen to the throne of God, and there, 
 like the golden vials of odors seen by John in Apocalyptic 
 vision, it has raised the stricken soul into a purer, diviner
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 121 
 
 fellowship, with the Lord Jesus Christ, the man of 
 sorrows, and this fellowship will abide, because He abideth 
 forever. 
 
 I have a friend who not many months since lost her 
 dearest earthly treasure, a beloved only son. She has 
 sorrowed as few sorrow, but in its shadow her heart has 
 gone out to God's poor and lonely ones as never before, and 
 she has given hope and cheer to heartbroken and distressed 
 as she never could have done but for her own experience, 
 She has sought and received divine aid in plans of benevo- 
 lence, whose results will not be measured in time. She is 
 laying up treasure in heaven, and is receiving fourfold in 
 this life. No such blessings could have been hers but for 
 the Ministry of Sorrow. 
 
 I know a mother crushed by the sudden removal of a 
 darling boy a few years old. She was a professed follower 
 of Christ, but in the bitterness of her soul she cried out, 
 "O Jamie, where art thou? I cannot live without thee!" 
 And like Jonah, she besought God to take her away also. 
 A few years later I was with her as she again trod the 
 "valley of the shadow of death." She was calm and 
 peaceful. Faith clasped the divine hand, and she lived as 
 seeing him who is invisible. She referred to her earlier 
 experience, and said it was a blessed and kindly hand that 
 led her out of the depths of grief in that early experience, 
 and that evermore she could sing, "In life or death, Thy 
 will be done." A deeper, greater sorrow awaited her, but 
 she met it and was victorious. She now rests beside her 
 beloved, and I have no doubt she knows why she was so 
 often called to pass through the deep waters of affliction. 
 
 One has been sitting beside me, giving words of sym- 
 pathy and comfort from her own experience. A few 
 months ago she could not have done this. But a beautiful 
 and beloved daughter was taken from her by the angel of
 
 122 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 death, to a blessed inheritance above, we believe. The 
 mother had no hope in Christ, and did not go to him as her 
 divine sympathizer at first; her sorrow was indeed a " cruel 
 fellowship." But this sad experience led her to seek and 
 find a sure refuge in the Rock of Ages. The everlasting 
 arms were beneath her. She now quietly, trustfully, goes 
 about her daily tasks seeking to help and comfort all sor- 
 rowing ones. 
 
 A family of nine children were born in a New England 
 home, and some of them had grown to the age of men and 
 women before death entered the household; but on one 
 November morning all the members were startled by the 
 strange breathing of the youngest, the pet of them all. A 
 physician was summoned, but only to tell the family there 
 was no hope; that the disease was membranous croup. In 
 a few hours the little one lay white, cold, and silent in the 
 darkened parlor. A new sense of eternal realities seemed 
 to impress all, and as they spoke in low, sad tones, many 
 resolutions were made to live purer, truer lives. Those 
 resolutions were not forgotten. New hopes, new aims and 
 aspirations, were in the hearts of all the children left. 
 
 Several of the older members of that family met a few 
 months ago in that old home. As they recalled the inci- 
 dents of their early experience, tender memories of that 
 little boy were rehearsed, and the ministry of sorrow in 
 his death was felt to have been one of precious and holy 
 power. 
 
 Many years ago I knew a young couple, very happy in 
 their first home, with a beautiful baby a few months old. 
 By an accident the little one was suddenly snatched from 
 them. It was a terrible blow to both parents. The 
 mother sought and found comfort in God, whom she had 
 learned to trust, but the father was in agony. He did not 
 believe in God. I spent the day before the burial with
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 123 
 
 them, where the little one lay "beautiful in death." I 
 strove to point the father to the true source of all comfort, 
 but he was so overwhelmed he saw no ray of light. A few 
 weeks later I saw him " standing before the Lord " to declare 
 his purpose henceforth not to live unto himself, but unto 
 God. His darling baby's death led him to seek the salva- 
 tion of his soul. He was indeed created again in Christ 
 Jesus. Other little ones came to gladden that home, and 
 were brought up in the nurture and admonition of the 
 Lord. He still has sweet memories of the little one who 
 led him to Christ. 
 
 A young wife, after a few brief years of wedded life, was 
 seated by the bedside of her dying husband. Her right 
 hand was clasped in his, and as he was entering the death 
 valley, with a breaking heart but calm voice she repeated 
 to him, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the 
 shadow of death I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me, Thy 
 rod and Thy staff they comfort me." A divine light illu- 
 minated his pale face, and with expressions of a beautiful 
 vision he passed into the unseen and eternal. Then to the 
 wife the sense of loss and desolation were overwhelming 
 such sorrow was indeed a "cruel fellowship." But she 
 knew in whom she believed, and knew, too, that dying 
 prayer had been offered for her in such a time as this, and 
 as incense it rose to heaven. Peace came to her soul, and 
 in faith's clear light she was led into green pastures and 
 beside still waters, and till life's close she will bless God for 
 the ministry of such sorrow. 
 
 Let us return to our beloved poet. Later on he sings 
 in another strain: 
 
 " 'Tis better to have loved and lost 
 Than never to have loved at all." 
 
 The Priestess Sorrow has offered a new and better sacrifice, 
 soothing the first agony, expressing in part the gain by
 
 124 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 loss; but it is not till long after, when faith has clearer 
 vision and doubt is dead, that he sings : 
 
 " And all is well, though faith and form 
 Be sundered in the night of fear, 
 Well roars the storm to those that hear 
 A deeper voice across the storm." 
 
 That voice is the same one that said to the weeping sisters 
 of Lazarus: "I am the resurrection and the life; he that 
 believeth in me shall never die." To one in whose soul 
 these words sound, sorrow can no longer be a " cruel fellow- 
 ship," but a link divine to bind that soul to the Eternal. 
 
 I have confined my discussion of the Ministry of Sorrow 
 chiefly to the influence on individual hearts and lives. But 
 this is by no means all. These same lives, in their influence 
 and work in the world, have been a power immeasurably 
 greater than they otherwise would have been. 
 
 The little wave circles beginning at these heart centers 
 have widened and widened, till their extent is beyond 
 human computation. Oh! sorrow is not a "cruel fellow- 
 ship" with one who through its power has been endued 
 with stronger faith, larger hope, and diviner love. 
 
 IT IS CURIOUS WHO GIVE 
 
 BY AUNT CLARA 
 
 "It's cur'us who give. There's Squire Wood, he's put 
 down $2; his farm's worth $10,000, and he's money at 
 interest. And there's Miss Brown, she's put down $5; 
 I don't believe she's had a new gown in two years, and her 
 bonnet ain't none of the newest, and she's them three 
 grandchildren to support since her son was killed in the 
 army; and she's nothing but her pension to live on. 
 Weil, she'll have to scrimp on butter and tea for a while,
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 125 
 
 but she'll pay it. She just loves the cause; that's why 
 she gives." 
 
 These were the utterances of Deacon Daniel after we 
 got home from church the day pledges were taken for con- 
 tributions to foreign missions. He was reading them off, 
 and I was taking down the items to find the aggregate 
 the Deacon said he had so much more confidence in my 
 knowledge of arithmetic than he had in his own. He went 
 on: "There's Maria Hill, she's put down $5; she teaches 
 in the North District, and don't have but $20 a month, 
 and pays her board; and she has to help support her 
 mother. But when she told her experience the time she 
 j'ined the church, I knew the Lord had done a work in her 
 soul; and where he works, you'll generally see the fruit 
 in giving. And there's John Baker. He's put down one 
 dollar, and he'll chew more'n that worth of tobacker in 
 a fornit. Cyrus Dunning, $4. Well, he'll have to do 
 some extra painting with that crippled hand, but he'll 
 do it, and sing the Lord's songs while he's at work. C. 
 Williams, $10. Good for him. He said the other night to 
 prayer-meeting that he'd been reading his Bible more than 
 usual lately. Maybe he read about the rich young man 
 who went away sorrowful, and didn't want to be in his 
 company." 
 
 So the Deacon went on making his comments, to the 
 end of the list. Now, I wouldn't have you think for a 
 moment that the good Deacon was finding fault with his 
 neighbors, or was too critical in his remarks, for I can 
 assure you that he had the most Christlike spirit of any 
 one I ever knew. But he was jealous for the Lord's cause 
 in every department of it, and very shrewd in noting in- 
 consistencies in giving. He wouldn't have spoken so 
 freely to every one, but I was in the family, and I am not 
 sure but he intended to give me a lesson.
 
 126 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 Now, this was years ago, and a thousand miles east of 
 the prairies, in a town of stone-fenced farms, each with 
 its beech and maple wood-lot, with the white meeting- 
 house and the academy at "the Center" and this is not 
 what I was to write at all. I was to tell how they paid 
 the church debt at Bates ville; but as I seated myself to 
 write that Sunday, the good Deacon rose on my mental 
 horizon, and before I was aware of what I was doing, 
 this sketch ran off the point of my pen. I always thought 
 it ought to be recorded, and I am glad it is in black and 
 white now, if it never goes any farther. I think the Bates- 
 ville spirit and manner of giving was so like this I have 
 sketched, that it is no wonder that this rose before me like 
 the ghost that would not down. Since I have made this 
 so long, I will leave the Batesville sketch for another time. 
 
 Lest some of my readers, after all I have said, should 
 get a wrong impression of the Deacon, I will tell you more 
 of him and his acts. He was not only interested in the 
 Boo-roo-gahs of Africa, or the Choo-hing-Foos of China, 
 but his heart went out toward every cause that had for 
 its object the advancement of Christ's kingdom. He de- 
 lighted having those give who possessed very small means, 
 and he had a peculiar way of helping them feel as if under, 
 obligation to him. Mrs. Brown was known to be an 
 excellent bread-maker, and he occasionally sent to her a 
 sack of flour to test its quality, before he felt sure that he 
 could ship the product of his mill as the best grade. He 
 suddenly discovered, too, that some of his buildings needed 
 new paint, and it was curious that this always occurred 
 just as Mr. Dunning was out of work. 
 
 The Deacon, as you have discovered, was not an edu- 
 cated man. He knew nothing of grammar, "to speak of," 
 he used to say, and when he conducted the prayer-meeting, 
 as he sometimes did in the absence of the pastor, he mis-
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 127 
 
 pronounced words in the reading of the hymn; and one 
 evening when he said, at the beginning of the meeting, 
 "We will read for our instruction the 25th chapter of 
 Psalms," a smile passed over some faces; but when he 
 prayed, every one was awed, for he prayed as one who 
 talked face to face with God, and we knew a blessing would 
 come to the meeting. 
 
 Once, when asked after the welfare of his family, he 
 said his wife "enjoyed very poor health"; but if any one 
 could enjoy poor health, I think she must, for his kind, 
 tender ministrations were such as to make the condition 
 of receiving them an enjoyment. 
 
 O, I forgot to tell you about the aggregate of that list 
 of pledges. It was $68, but the printed statement of 
 receipts in the Herald gave it $100. I know where the 
 rest came from, and the Deacon was not a rich man either.
 
 APPENDIX
 
 MRS. EUGENIE MANVILLE McKNIGHT 
 
 Among the favorite pupils of Mrs. Tracy in the early 
 years of her teaching in the College was Eugenie Manville, 
 daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Manville of Ripon; and 
 to her memory, in harmony with what we believe would 
 have been Mrs. Tracy's wish, we have been permitted to 
 inscribe this book. 
 
 The early home of the Manville family was in De 
 Pauville, New York, where Eugenie was born in the 
 year 1848. After the removal of the family to Ripon the 
 daughter had the advantages of excellent schools, in par- 
 ticular those of the College, of which she made full account. 
 Here were laid the foundations of the breadth of culture, 
 fineness of taste, and Christian character which made 
 her subsequent life a social power; and which, added to 
 her natural graciousness and gentleness, made the posses- 
 sion of her friendship a prize and a joy. 
 
 She was married to Summer T. McKnight, Esq., in the 
 year 1868, and her subsequent life was spent at Hannibal, 
 Missouri; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Minneapolis, Minne- 
 sota. Her residence in the latter city continued during 
 sixteen years, in which her fine ability as a social leader 
 and a worker in charities for the comforting of the aged 
 and homeless in their need, found a field for wide and suffi- 
 cient service. "During the sixteen years of her residence 
 in Minneapolis," says a notice from which we quote, "she 
 was identified with the Westminster Presbyterian Church, 
 and was a director for the Home for Children and Aged 
 Women. In all of the charitable work in which she was 
 engaged she exercised a remarkable intelligence and execu- 
 
 131
 
 132 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 tive ability which brought success to every undertaking." 
 All too soon seemed her leave-taking, for in the very prime 
 of her power and opportunities for service, in the year 1903, 
 August 29, she entered into rest. The husband and the 
 three children met an irreparable loss indeed, but the 
 needy also a comforter, the perplexed a counselor, and 
 humanity a friend. 
 
 GENEALOGY OF THE HARRIS FAMILY 
 
 KEPT BY JONATHAN HARRIS 
 
 Beginning A. D. 1654, continuing until 1905. 
 
 I. f Walter Harris Died in England December 6, 1654. 
 
 ( Mary .Came to New London, January, 1658, 
 
 { a widow. 
 
 II. / Gabriel Harris Came with his mother, Mary. 
 
 \ Children: Walter, William, Joseph. 
 
 III. f William Harris. . . .Lived in New London. 
 
 \ Elizabeth Gibson. .Children: Samuel, Ebenezer. 
 IV. f Samuel Harris Born March 5, 1697, died at Fort Ed- 
 ward, 1757 (army physician). 
 
 Dinah Wilcox 10 children, all born at New London. 
 
 Samuel September 26, 1722, died July 24, 
 
 1726. A lovely child. 
 
 Paul March 21, 1724. A faithful friend, 
 
 much respected. 
 
 Ruth March 17, 1726. Married Cady. 
 
 Samuel December 18, 1727. A physician. 
 
 Went to Kentucky. 
 Silas January 3, 1731. A plain, matter-of- 
 fact man. 
 
 Dinah May 18, 1733. Fond of solemn music. 
 
 Doubleday. 
 
 Job February 10, 1735. A poet; serious, 
 
 but cheerful. 
 
 Lois November 20, 1736. Serious, but 
 
 social. Married Wrist. 
 
 Edward July 17, 1739. A civilian, lived in 
 
 Salem. He composed our family 
 song, "Sweet Fellowship." 
 
 Reuben December 6, 1741. A musician, very 
 
 athletic. Lived in Brookfield, Conn.
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 133 
 
 VI. 
 
 f Job Harris Born February 10, 1735, in New Lon- 
 
 j don; died November, 1814. 
 
 [ Abigail Clarke 5 children: John, Parthenia, Joshua, 
 
 Abigail, Eunice. 
 
 /John April 22, 1776. 
 
 \ Susanna Smith. . . .August 3, 1767. Children: Jonathan, 
 
 Grant, Miriam and Joanna. 
 
 / Parthenia 14 children: Amie, Isaac, William , 
 
 \ Isaac Baldwin. Parthenia, Elizabeth, Jesse, Hervey, 
 
 Rachel, Levi, Hosea, Lydia, Newton, 
 
 Philamela, Benjamin. 
 
 10 Children. 
 
 2 Children. 
 
 4 Children: Abigail, Anne, Daniel, 
 and Joel. 
 
 Clarissa Scott's family: 
 Born Ocotber 16, 1791. 
 Lived in Jackson, Pa.; 9 children. 
 
 April 28, 1793. 
 
 11 children. 
 January 11, 1795. Died February 
 
 16, 1806. 
 December 16. 1796. 
 
 April 4, 1799. 
 
 .9 children. 
 
 June 16, 1801. 
 
 7 children. 
 
 March 19, 1800. Died February 25, 
 
 1811. 
 March 19, 1800. 
 
 5 children. 
 
 3 children. 
 November 14, 1807. Died February 
 
 26, 1825. 
 
 Joseph Elliott July 10. 1809. 
 
 Mary Niter 1 child: William. Married September 
 
 10, 1831. 
 
 Harriet Noter Children: Mary, Freedom, Minerva, 
 
 Ella. 
 
 Eunice Goodwin. . . 1 child: Harriet, September 11, 1860. 
 Joseph Elliott married Harriet Noter 
 October, 1833. Married Eunice 
 Goodwin April 12, 1854. 
 
 Joshua 
 
 Clarissa Scott. 
 
 Abigail 
 
 Isaiah Smith. 
 
 Eunice 
 
 Daniel Baldwin. 
 Joshua Harris' and 
 
 Lydia 
 
 Uriah Thayer 
 
 Lucy 
 
 Stephen Tucker. . . . 
 Clarissa 
 
 Samuel. . . 
 Phila Otis. 
 
 Ebenezer 
 
 Rachnall Baldwin. 
 
 Joshua 
 
 Nancy Miner 
 
 Joel 
 
 Reuben 
 
 Olive Wells 
 Lovisa Stearns. 
 Eunice
 
 134 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 VII. The family of Stephen Tucker and Lucy Harris: 
 
 Stephen Tucker.. . .Born February 9, 1794, at Halifax, 
 Vermont, Died February 17, 1882, 
 at Jackson, Pa. 
 Lucy Harris Born April 28, 1793, at Halifax, Ver- 
 mont. Died April 5, 1871, at Jack- 
 son, Pa. 
 Married at Halifax, Vermont, February 4, 1816. 
 Children: 
 
 James H., Clarissa, born November 12, 1818, Elizabeth, 
 Sarah, Willison, Eunice, Evander, Emerson, Derius, 
 Amos, and one little child that died shortly after it was 
 born. 
 VIII. Clarissa Tucker married Horace Hyde Tracy, May, 1844. 
 Two children. 
 James Horace Tracy born February 22, 1845, died De- 
 cember 6, 1891. 
 Clarissa Aurelia, born October 3, 1847, died April 3, 1851. 
 IX. James Horace Tracy married Marion De Wolf, at Clinton, 
 Missouri, January 22, 1872. Two children: 
 Marion, now Mrs. Henry Osborn of Cleveland, Ohio, and 
 Dorothy. 
 
 FELLOWSHIP 
 
 Family song of the Harris family sung these many years at 
 their reunions. 
 
 Sweet fellowship, from envy free, 
 Sweet converse of our best desire, 
 
 An everlasting cement be, 
 
 Fed by the flame of mutual fire; 
 
 This flame well known in ages past, 
 
 Shall ever overflowing last. 
 
 There may I let my wishes loose; 
 
 There's no excess in this delight; 
 And view the eternal mansion house, 
 
 How broad and how exceeding bright. 
 Jehovah's name strikes every string, 
 He is the source, the flowing spring.
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 135 
 
 And while I taste the pleasing stream, 
 The source engages all my thought; 
 
 I soar along the lofty theme, 
 Till time and nature are forgot. 
 
 Time is but one short interview, 
 
 While this is ever flowing new. 
 
 Then fly, my soul, with eager wing, 
 
 Behold the interview above, 
 Where the bright hosts in order sing, 
 
 Tasting the streams of boundless love. 
 Where God himself regales the guest 
 In one eternal flowing feast. 
 
 Edward Harris. 
 
 STEPHEN TUCKER 
 
 Stephen Tucker, Mrs. Tracy's father, was of sturdy 
 Puritan stock. There was no genealogy of the Tucker 
 family available, but Mrs. Tracy told me the following 
 singular and interesting facts in regard to her paternal 
 grandmother and great grandmother: "My father's mother 
 was Sarah Angel, and her mother was Christian Church, 
 and she married James Angel. I found it hard to believe, 
 until I went with my mother to the old graveyard, at 
 Halifax, Vermont, and saw myself the names on the old 
 tombstones." 
 
 Mr. Tucker was charter member of the Jackson Baptist 
 Church, and for forty years its clerk. He had quite a gift 
 at poesy, and some of his poems were found among Mrs. 
 Tracy's papers.
 
 136 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 TRACY ANCESTRY 
 
 Horace Hyde Tracy, son of Josiah Tracy and Mary 
 Birchard, his wife. 
 
 Both husband and wife were descendants from the same 
 ancestor, several generations back, Josiah Tracy being 
 descended from the eldest son of Lieutenant Thomas 
 Tracy, and Mary Birchard from the only daughter of 
 Lieutenant Tracy. 
 
 Lieutenant Thomas Tracy was born about 1610, at 
 Tewksbury, England (?). He came to Salem, Massachu- 
 setts, in 1636, lived there until 1637. Land was granted to 
 him there. He came over to America in the interest of his 
 friends, Lord Say and Lord Brook. He removed to Con- 
 necticut in 1640, to the town of Saybrook, which was named 
 thus after his two friends. He married Mrs. Mason in 
 1641. He married twice; for his second wife, the widow 
 of John Bradford (son of Governor Bradford of Plymouth 
 Colony) . 
 
 Lieutenant Thomas Tracy was a talented and active 
 man, and was much interested in shipbuilding. He moved 
 to Norwich in 1659, was one of the thirty-five original pro- 
 prietors. He was representative of Norwich to the Legis- 
 lature twenty-seven sessions. In 1645, he and Thomas 
 Leffingwill, with others, relieved Uncas, the Sachem of the 
 Mohegans, when he was besieged. Uncas gave four hun- 
 dred acres of land to Thomas Tracy and to Thomas Leff- 
 ingwill. Thomas Tracy was Lieutenant of the New London 
 County Dragoons. In King Philip's War (1675) he with 
 John Bradford was appointed commissary and quarter- 
 master. He owned five thousand acres of real estate. 
 Lieutenant Tracy died November 7, 1685. 
 
 The settlement of the De Tracy family in England 
 dates from King Stephen's time. This surname, it is said, 
 is taken from the castle of Tracy, on the Orne.
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 137 
 
 The Birchards were descendants of one of the old fami- 
 lies of Hartford, Connecticut, whose English ancestry 
 settled at Martha's Vineyard, in Puritan times. Their 
 Norman ancestry is traced back to A. D. 956. 
 
 DR. JAMES HORACE TRACY 
 
 A telegram was received Sunday morning, announcing 
 that Dr. Tracy had been stricken down by apoplexy 
 while at work in his office. His death was most sudden. 
 While still in the prime of life he was snatched from his 
 family and friends. The funeral occurred at his home 
 inEscanaba, Wednesday, December 9th. 
 
 The high esteem in which Dr. Tracy was held by the 
 community was shown by the large gathering of people 
 at the interment, over five thousand persons being in 
 attendance. 
 
 In the year 1868, J. H. Tracy graduated with high honors 
 from Ripon College. He then took a course in medicine 
 at the Chicago Medical College, and later studied at the 
 College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City; from 
 here he took the degree of M. D. in 1870. After gradua- 
 tion he became assistant surgeon in the German army 
 during the Franco-Prussian war. At the close of the war 
 he practiced for some time in the hospitals at Berlin. He 
 then returned to this country, thoroughly equipped for his 
 life's work. In 1873 he married Miss Marion De Wolf, and 
 began the practice of medicine at Escanaba, where he has 
 resided until his death. 
 
 The qualities which made Dr. Tracy eminent were his 
 unselfish devotion to the interests of all with whom his 
 profession brought him in contact, his readiness at all 
 times to administer to the needs of the poor without regard
 
 138 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 to pecuniary benefit, and his indefatigable power for con- 
 tinuous work. 
 
 Professional ability was not the sole excellence or dis- 
 tinction of Dr. Tracy. His social qualities, his love of lit- 
 erature, and his keen interest in moral reform, and all that 
 tends to the happiness of his fellow-men, amid all the other 
 demands of his profession, were remarkable. 
 
 His career is now closed, but it is a happy reflection that 
 it has been a career of so much honor to himself and of so 
 much usefulness to others. 
 
 College Days, December, 1891. 
 
 ANNIVERSARIES 
 IN HONOR OF MRS. C. T. TRACY 
 
 One of the most delightful parties of the season was 
 given Thursday, November 12, 1903, as the home of Mrs. 
 E. H. Merrell, in honor of Mrs. Tracy's eighty-fifth birthday. 
 Some thirty guests, friends of long standing, assembled 
 to extend congratulations and best wishes to the one we 
 all love to honor. Prominent among the guests were Mrs. 
 Cooper, mother of Mrs. B. F. Sanford, and Mrs. H. S. Eg- 
 gleston. Mrs. Cooper went to school to Mrs. Tracy when 
 the latter was in her teens, and Mrs. Eggleston has been a 
 friend of Mrs. Tracy for more than forty years. 
 
 A short program was rendered in the early part of the 
 afternoon, including a violin solo by Miss Lilian C. Merrell. 
 
 Much to Mrs. Tracy's surprise, Mrs. Merrell read two 
 poems, written respectively by Mrs. Tracy and by Mrs. 
 Mary Spencer Thayer on the occasion of Mrs. Tracy's 
 eightieth anniversary. A piano solo, "The Sweet Long 
 Ago," by Blake, and Lange's Flower Song, were given by 
 the hostess. Then all with clasped hands joined in sing- 
 ing, "Auld Lang Syne" to the leading of the violin.
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 139 
 
 A dainty supper was served. White and pale yellow 
 chrysanthemums, the glossy leaves and bright red berries 
 of the honeysuckle, and red and white candles giving the 
 dining-room a gay and festive appearance. The decora- 
 tion of the other rooms were red and white carnations and 
 white and yellow chrysanthemums. 
 
 Ripon Commonwealth. 
 
 MRS. TRACY'S EIGHTY-SIXTH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 That Saturday, November 12th, was a pleasant day, 
 was an agreeable fact to not a few people, but to none 
 more so than to about forty of the numerous friends of 
 Mrs. C. T. Tracy, who, for two or three days had been 
 whispering among themselves that it was Mrs. Tracy's 
 eighty-sixth birthday, and that a surprise party would be in 
 order. The guests began to assemble about noon, each 
 offering suitable congratulations or gifts to the hostess. A 
 bountiful dinner had been provided by the guests, to which, 
 after grace by Mr. Cooper, ample justice was done. Then, 
 all the company being assembled in the sitting-room or 
 about the doors, Mrs. Tracy was presented a beautiful 
 white shawl, and Dr. Merrell called upon to make a pres- 
 entation speech. He recounted, in brief, Mrs. Tracy's work 
 in the college, and the high esteem in which she was held 
 by the students, the faculty, and by all who knew her 
 strong Christian character, and closed with a word of 
 advice, "That she should be very careful of the shawl, for 
 when we all should assemble to celebrate her one-hun- 
 dredth birthday we should want to see her wearing it." 
 
 Professor Chandler, with a few appropriate anecdotes, 
 spoke of the great advantages offered to women now as 
 compared with those when Mrs. Tracy was a young teacher 
 in Pennsylvania. She had had a chance to note all this
 
 140 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 wonderful growth. Not that we ever thought of her as old. 
 "This reminded him of an anecdote. A couple had reached 
 the age of 90, and one day they received the sad news of 
 of the death of one of their numerous sons, aged 70. The 
 husband, turning to his wife, remarked, "Well, Mehitabel, 
 I always was afraid we should never be able to raise that 
 boy." 
 
 The mistress of ceremonies, Mrs. Merrell, then called 
 upon Mrs. Tracy to speak in response, as she well knew 
 she was capable of doing. How proud we felt of her, as 
 she rose straight and tall with the fluffy white shawl 
 wrapped about her, and told how, as a girl of fourteen 
 she had been asked to take a school, and how awed she 
 felt when that august body, the school inspectors, came 
 visiting. (One of her old Pennsylvania pupils, now Mrs. 
 Cooper, was among the guests present.) When at night 
 her landlady had told her the inspectors said hers was the 
 best school they had visited that day, she did not feel 
 proud a bit. It rather made her humble, for she thought 
 how much better she might have done. She always felt- 
 that way whenever she was commended for doing any- 
 thing. Notwithstanding her disadvantages, she procured 
 books, and took all the studies open to young men in the 
 colleges, except Greek. But her greatest joy, after all, was 
 that she believed that she was a Christian, for, as she looked 
 upon people, she really felt she loved them all, and had no 
 enemies. She looked forward to an entrance into the joys 
 everlasting, where she hoped to meet all her friends. 
 
 After singing "Auld Lang Syne," a brief social time 
 was enjoyed, and the guests departed, wishing the hostess 
 other happy birthdays. 
 
 Those from away were Miss Luthera Adams of Omro, 
 Miss Lovila Mosher, and Mrs. J. T. Sheehan of Waupun. 
 
 College Days. One of the Guests.
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 141 
 
 FOR THE EIGHTY-FIRST BIRTHDAY 
 
 What life attains, serene, its fourscore years? 
 
 What life fulfills its reach of time and space 
 
 And beauty? 'Tis the life that runs its race 
 With patience, and divine high-calling hears ; 
 The child-like soul, that trusts and bodes no fears ; 
 
 The spirit swift to do and teach, through grace, 
 
 The truth and will of God ; finding a place 
 To sympathize and bless, in spite of cares. 
 Such lives our grateful hearts will not forget. 
 
 Such we congratulate in glad assemblings 
 To render such frail honors as we may. 
 We pray they long may linger with us yet, 
 
 That we may farther trace divine resemblings 
 And in their light through darkness find our way. 
 
 S. T. Kidder. 
 Ripon, Wis., November 12, 1895. 
 
 TO MRS. TRACY 
 
 Dear friend, still lithe of tread and strong of voice, 
 On this fair day receive our greeting true, 
 O'er all sweet things this birthday brings to view, 
 
 And in thy joy which bids us all rejoice. 
 
 For thy chief blessing, what shall be our choice, 
 While we to-day our tenderest love renew? 
 More years of sunshine spanned with skies all blue? 
 
 Full days of peace, remote from care and noise? 
 
 For this, and more, O friend beloved, we pray; 
 Sweet memories fondly roaming o 'er the past, 
 Fruitions fair to crown each present scene, 
 Hopes that bring Heaven nearer each swift day, 
 Faith that makes each hour brighter than the last, 
 The precious nearness of the Friend unseen. 
 To Mrs. Tracy from her pastor, S. T. Kidder. 
 November 12, 1904.
 
 142 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 ACROSTIC ON THE MAY-FLOWER 
 
 To Mrs. C. T. Tracy, on seeing at her room the first flowers of the 
 
 season. 
 
 There is a flower I love, and love the best, 
 Remote from man its hiding-place of rest, 
 Among the withered leaves its mossy dell, 
 I know your pretty waxen face right well, 
 Low lying, lovely little flower of May; 
 I love your purity and artless way; 
 No sweeter blossom on the earth is found, 
 God never made, to bloom so near the ground. 
 
 A better proof of skill and heavenly love; 
 Read me a lesson, little flower divine; 
 Be thou my teacher, while I seek thy shrine; 
 Unfold to me the way of modest worth, 
 That greatness is not incident to birth. 
 Upon these darling flowers angels smiled; 
 Smile back again! So is my life beguiled. 
 
 E. N. A. 
 
 EDWARD ROWLAND SILL 
 
 Edward Rowland Sill's mother died when he was quite young, 
 and his aunt, Miss Rowland, had the care of him. When he was 
 fourteen or fifteen years of age, she came to Honesdale to spend a 
 year with her brother, Dr. Henry A. Rowland, our pastor, and Sill 
 attended our academy and was in my classes. I had charge of his 
 work in composition. He handed in a poem, which I thought quite 
 remarkable, but I doubted the originality, and showed it to the 
 other three teachers, and they felt as I did, but did not think best 
 to say anything to him about it, so I gave him a subject for another 
 one, which he wrote equally well. 
 
 He left at the end of the year and went to Yale College, I think. 
 I heard little of him for some years, occasionally an article or poem 
 in some paper or magazine, till Professor Tolman came here. 
 
 Ripon, Wisconsin. C. T. T.
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 143 
 
 THE RIPON FLAG 
 Mr. Allex, 
 
 Dear Sir: The following incidents may not have been noticed 
 by others, and thinking it worthy of presentation I send it to you 
 for insertion in connection with your account of the interesting 
 exercises last evening. 
 
 Just as the standard-bearer had taken his position after receiving 
 the flag from the ladies, the clouds that were scudding across the 
 zenith parted, and Jupiter appeared just above it, while no other 
 star was yet visible. 
 
 Beneath the dome of heaven, at twilight's hour, 
 
 The ensign of our Ripon Rifles bore 
 
 Our country's flag, received from woman's hand 
 
 In that proud hour: received as their own flag, 
 
 Which they may bear, as they go forth to battle 
 
 For the right, far from their loved prairie homes; 
 
 And as the "stripes" streamed forth, moved by the breeze, 
 
 And the bright silver stars gleamed on the blue, 
 
 Another star, by upward glance, viewed, 
 
 Even then, just through the "rifted clouds" above. 
 
 Bright Jupiter looked down to bless the scene, 
 
 And rode in majesty above the heads 
 
 Of those brave volunteers; perchance the star 
 
 Of hope to them, and to our own dear land. 
 
 It was a pleasant scene for such an hour, 
 
 Bearing tokens of the sway of justice, 
 
 And should these boys in blue 
 
 Go forth to dwell in "camp or tented field," 
 
 May this same star with beams as bright look down on them, 
 
 As true and brave, as those on Bunker's Hill, 
 
 Or Saratoga's plain; and may it speak 
 
 To them of Him who is the "bright and evening star," 
 
 The star of hope to all who seek its light: 
 
 A light that shall illume our life's whole path, 
 
 And e'en make bright the passage to the tomb. 
 
 C. T.
 
 144 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 JOE SMITH 
 
 Windsor, N. Y., July 28, 1881. 
 Editors Press: 
 
 "We two" came to this place yesterday. We did not 
 come by rail, choosing a carriage ride of nine miles from 
 Susquehanna, especially as we had the company of some 
 jolly musical friends, with whom we could talk of the 
 beauties by the way, or listen to gleeful songs as we 
 came through the ferny woods. The whole distance is 
 fragrant with the odor of "raspberries and woodland 
 herbage. The road is a little above the beautiful Sus- 
 quehanna River, which we see on "its winding way" 
 nearly the whole of the distance we came. Along its bank 
 is the serpentine track of the railroad, and every half-hour 
 or oftener the scene is varied by the gliding motion of long 
 trains of coal-cars, carrying their freight to Saratoga, Mon- 
 treal, iron regions of Vermont, and other portions of New 
 England. 
 
 One of the charming views by the way is the reflection 
 from the surface of the river of the graceful foliage on its 
 banks. Here we are warmly welcomed in a delightful 
 home, near which are rocky dells, gushing streams of clear 
 cold water, laughing cascades, and mossy banks. As is 
 common here, in early morning the fog conceals the sur- 
 roundings, but it will lift as the sun gets higher. "When 
 the mists have cleared away" we are going to explore some 
 of the ravines nearest, and expect to find some treasurers 
 "new and old." Over the Pennsylvania part of the way 
 here the road leads through a region somewhat noted as the 
 scene of operations of Joe Smith, the Mormon prophet 
 and leader, and there are still living a few old people who 
 remember him well. He married his first wife here, a 
 daughter of Isaac Hale, and she is still spoken of as "poor,
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 145 
 
 deluded Emma/' in the region. I have had access to the 
 records of his operations, which it appears were somewhat 
 varied. . In 1818 he was engaged in lumbering; in 1825, 
 having obtained his "seeing stone," he for some time 
 directed "diggings" for hidden treasures, which he saw 
 in a certain place. I have before me a diagram of the 
 "holes" made under his direction, five in number, the 
 largest 150 feet in circumference, and 20 feet deep. The 
 holes are more or less filled up, but still distinctly traced. 
 He induced several men of means and of some intelligence 
 to work under his direction, but the treasure ever eluded 
 them, through some enchantment that he was not able 
 to control. 
 
 He left here and went to Palmyra, New York, for a few 
 years, but returned here in 1830 or 1831, with the "wonder- 
 ful plates" from which the Mormon Bible was translated; 
 he is still duping persons to engage in his service. After 
 he went to Ohio, his father-in-law received a letter of in- 
 quiry concerning his character and operations. I have 
 been reading the reply "published in the "History of Sus- 
 quehanna County," in which statements are made that 
 ought to have convinced anybody of his baseness and 
 utter untrustworthiness of anything he might say, and to 
 this letter was appended the testimony of two judges of 
 the county and other reliable men, that Mr. Hale's state- 
 ment might be relied on as truth. But it seems that his 
 adherents in Ohio declared them false, and said that his 
 father-in-law was blind and could not write, etc., so he 
 went on with his impostures till the result has reached 
 the gigantic proportions of the present system of Mor- 
 monism. 
 
 I find this statement in the history alluded to: "It is 
 a fact of which this country is not particularly proud, that 
 it once harbored for a time such a character," etc. Y.
 
 146 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 NEENAH 
 
 NEENAH BIBLE CLASS 
 
 In an old commonplace book, in which Mrs. Tracy was 
 wont to copy thoughts which interested her, was found a 
 list of her Bible class in Neenah. 
 
 Emma Kimberley* Elizabeth Jones* 
 
 Kate Wintersf Sarah J. Eaton* 
 
 Libbie Nelson} Fannie Allen| 
 
 Harriet Huxley Mary Hyde} 
 
 Mary E. Williams Julia Hibbardf 
 
 Hannah Scott* Maria Walker* 
 
 Maria Crane* Elizabeth Walker} 
 
 Mary Green* Caroline Paddock* 
 
 Caroline Holbrook* Elsie Slingerland* 
 
 Ruth Holbrook Orinda Woodf 
 
 Ida Montgomery* Jose Woodf 
 
 Clara Martin* Eliza McGregor} 
 
 Lucy Jones* Mary J. Sherry} 
 
 Jane Jonesf Emma C. Hodges} 
 
 Below the list were the following significant marks : 
 
 * Became Christians while members of the class, 
 t Professors before entering the class. 
 } Unconverted or doubtful. 
 
 ANECDOTES OF MRS. TRACY 
 
 Dear Mrs. Merrell: 
 
 It was the day before I left Ripon, in the summer of 
 1902, that in conversation with Mrs. Tracy I quoted a few 
 words from the nineteenth Psalm. Immediately she 
 responded, "I shall repeat that Psalm to-morrow morning. 
 I always do when my friends go away." 
 
 The next morning, after being seated at table (Mrs.
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 147 
 
 Tracy, Bertha, and I), all bowed our heads and closed our 
 eyes as Mrs. Tracy began that "Prayer of Moses the Man 
 of God." With but slight hesitation she reached the 
 tenth verse and proceeded: "The days of our years are 
 threescore years and ten: and if by reason of strength 
 they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and 
 sorrow," " 'taint so, though, always," "Who knoweth 
 the power of thine anger" " Oh, I forgot something " 
 "for it is soon cut off and we fly away " "Who know- 
 eth," etc., through the remainder of the chapter, though 
 with increasing hesitation and stumbling. It was evident 
 to one listener, whose spirit of devotion was suddenly 
 changed to that of mirth (I say it with due respect to the 
 occasion and my adorable friend), that that little correction 
 or revision of King James's text caused the reviser to lose 
 the thread of her discourse. 
 
 A few months later I narrated the incident to Mrs. 
 Kendall, formally Preceptress at Ripon College, as proof 
 of dear Mrs. Tracy's consciousness of her own unusual 
 vitality and enjoyment of life, at and beyond the scriptural 
 maximum of fourscore years. "Yes," responded Mrs. 
 Kendall, "Mrs. Tracy wrote me about it, saying that she 
 did not fail to take exception to the Psalmist's pessimistic 
 view of old age," or words to that effect. 
 
 No allusion was made to this when I was Mrs. Tracy's 
 guest last summer, but she repeated another Psalm on the 
 morning of my departure. 
 
 With the hope that no disrespect for our dearly loved 
 friend is evidenced in this little tale (you know there is 
 none in my heart), I submit it to your loving care and use. 
 
 Ever cordially, 
 
 Eliza D. White.
 
 148 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 I was spending some weeks with Auntie Tracy in her 
 rooms at' Middle College. One evening she asked me, just 
 as she left for prayer-meeting, to put a shovelful of coal 
 on the fire. I became engrossed in a game of Halma with 
 Miss Helmer, and completely forgot my promised service, 
 until it was recalled to me an hour later by the terse 
 remark, "Well, it's rather cold here," as Mrs. Tracy en- 
 tered the room. The fire in the big base-burner, which 
 never lost its glow from October to April, had completely 
 gone out. I covered myself with dust and ashes, figura- 
 tively speaking, while Mrs. Tracy was dealing with the real 
 ashes and fresh charcoal for rekindling the fire. I finally 
 answered up by weakly saying, that I would try never to 
 let such a thing happen again. "No," said Mrs. Tracy, 
 " I don't think you will. I don't think you'll get a chance." 
 
 One other evening, Mrs. Tracy came to my door with 
 the inquiry, "Have you gone to bed?" 
 
 I answered, "Not yet." "Well," she responded, "you 
 might just as well said simply, 'No.' Of course if you 
 haven't gone to bed you haven't gone 'yet.' Besides I 
 knew you hadn't gone to bed before you answered me." 
 
 Do you remember the time when Alice Adams Meyer 
 came back and unexpectedly knocked at Mrs. Tracy's 
 door? (I think Mrs. Tracy knew she was coming, but did 
 not know just when.) Mrs. Meyer was all aglow with the 
 joyful surprise she was going to give Mrs. Tracy, and 
 walked in, in response to the customary summons, "Come 
 in." Mrs. Tracy did not at first recognize her not indeed 
 until Mrs. Meyer exclaimed, "Mrs. Tracy, don't you know 
 your girl?" "Oh," said Mrs. Tracy, "it's you, is it? 
 How's Will ? " Maud Merrell Brown, 
 
 November 30, 1908. Walla Walla, Washington.
 
 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 149 
 
 Chicago, III., February 22, 1902. 
 Dear Mrs. Tracy: 
 
 I want to thank you personally for the loving greeting 
 which you sent us, and which Fred Dawes read to us last 
 evening at our dinner. No name mentioned by any of the 
 speakers received such prolonged and hearty applause as 
 yours, and there was plainly evident among us all a feeling 
 of respect and affection for you, and of disappointment 
 that you could not be with us, that would have done your 
 heart good, I know. You would have laughed as heartily 
 as any of us over the recollections of college days, and of 
 an incident of your recitation-room which somehow seemed 
 as natural as life to us. 
 
 Mrs. Tracy What is a dicotyledonous plant ? 
 
 Student It's it's it's where 
 
 Mrs. Tracy It's not a place. 
 
 Student It's it's it's when 
 
 Mrs. Tracy It's not a time. 
 
 Student I don't know as I can exactly 
 
 Mrs. Tracy You know or you don't know. 
 
 Student But, Mrs. Tracy, I haven't had time to 
 
 Mrs. Tracy You've had all the time there was. 
 
 Student sits down. 
 
 There was a time when that sort of an experience used 
 to cut us up rather badly, but we long ago learned that the 
 trenchant rebuke was for our own good, and that the one 
 who administered it was one of the noblest, most self- 
 sacrificing, most helpful friends that God could have given 
 us for our early guidance. And so all love you and say 
 God bless you as indeed He has blessed your influence 
 on so many lives. 
 
 Sincerely and respectfully yours, 
 
 C. P. Coffin.
 
 15 CLARISSA TUCKER TRACY 
 
 Mrs. Tracy was quick at repartee, and always had an 
 answer ready. An unwary professor at the breakfast 
 table once asked for half a cup of coffee. When Mrs. Tracy 
 handed him a full cup of coffee in return, he protested, 
 saying that he asked for only half a cup. "Yes, but you 
 did not say which half." 
 
 At the wedding of one of her girls, a graduate of Ripon 
 College, she congratulated the groom very heartily. But 
 as he was an entire stranger to her, she tempered her con- 
 gratulations to the bride as follows, remarking, " It remains 
 to be seen whether I can congratulate you, or not." 
 
 A young teacher in the College kept her class over time 
 thus encroaching upon the time of Mrs. Tracy's class, 
 which recited next in the same room. The young lady 
 apologized graciously, saying that she was anxious to have 
 her class use every moment of the hour. Mrs. Tracy's 
 abrupt, curt, "So do I mine," was a most effective and 
 salutary reproof.
 
 V-.. . 
 
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